For more than three decades, the hierarchy of Pakistan’s passenger-car market resembled a well-rehearsed Kabuki: Suzuki ruled the mass segment, Toyota presided over the upper-middle, Honda filled the aspirational middle-class niche – and everyone else fought for crumbs. That appears to have changed.
With the Pakistani auto market being more filled with nascent competitors, not all of whom are publicly listed, data on the industry as a whole is not as easy as once used to be when one only really needed to look at three companies. But based on a rudimentary analysis conducted by Profit, it appears that Sazgar may become the third largest auto company in Pakistan by revenue during the first quarter of calendar year 2025.
We have covered the rise of Sazgar – and indeed the other competitors to the Big Three Japanese car companies – before. But that was when it seemed like an interesting nascent set of challengers. Now the challengers are starting to have real heft. How did this come to pass?
To answer that question, we must first provide some context about the industry, and how it is doing. The content in this publication is expensive to produce. But unlike other journalistic outfits, business publications have to cover the very organizations that directly give them advertisements. Hence, this large source of revenue, which is the lifeblood of other media houses, is severely compromised on account of Profit’s no-compromise policy when it comes to our reporting. No wonder, Profit has lost multiple ad deals, worth tens of millions of rupees, due to stories that held big businesses to account. Hence, for our work to continue unfettered, it must be supported by discerning readers who know the value of quality business journalism, not just for the economy but for the society as a whole.To read the full article, subscribe and support independent business journalism in Pakistan
