Automark

The internal ministerial board meeting presided by minister of since and technology and attended by representatives of FBR, Sales Tax, PEC, PSQCA and other relevant stakeholders on Thursday 21st at Islamabad.

According to reliable sources, the meeting unanimously resolved and finalized to establish separate EV development board to regulate the EV development in Pakistan.

It was debated and agreed that this task cannot be left at the hands of current regulator as it has already failed to regulate the auto industry as it should be. The deflection and local development of auto parts has not been up to the mark and required numbers, as a result govt has to pay a heavy price in dollars under SRO 655 to feed the auto industry, which has failed in developing localisation and provide customers with quality and the prices of ice vehicles.

The development in EV sector in Pakistan is only possible through a separate EV regulator, to avoid conflict of interest, as present regulator is heavy packed and heavily represented by auto makers.

The meeting was of the view that the task of formation of separate and independent board should be rested PEC and they would develop relevant documentation and present it to the ministry for forwarding a summary to cabinet for approval.

The name of this body is suggested ‘Future Science and Technology Board’ to regulate EV as well some other subjects related to science and technology. The ministry of MOCC can also play a positive role along with science and technology.

The meeting also expressed it severe concerns that SROs and other notifications have not been issued by the concern department of FBR and other bodies in line with the EV policy approved by ECC and the cabinet. The relevant were asked to expedite the SROs etc as investors and public is not able to get any benefits against the approved policy.

The concerned department assured to expedite the process. The meeting was concerned that it is unwanted state of affairs, that the relief to public and EV investors is delayed without any reason this is defaming the efforts of the PTI government.

The new logo is a symbol of Kia’s new brand purpose and the values it promises to offer customers through future products and services, the company claims.

HIGHLIGHTS
• The new logo of Kia Motors resembles a handwritten signature.
• The logo’s unbroken line conveys the company’s commitment to bringing moments of inspiration, it is claimed.
• Kia Motors will announce a new brand purpose and strategy on January 15.

Kia Motors has unveiled its new corporate logo and global brand slogan. The automaker claims that the introduction of the new logo represents its ambitions to establish a leadership position in the future mobility industry by revamping nearly all facets of its business.

According to Kia Motors, the new logo is a symbol of its new brand purpose and the values it promises to offer customers through future products and services. The new logo resembles a handwritten signature and its unbroken line conveys the company’s commitment to bringing moments of inspiration.

“Kia’s new logo represents the company’s commitment to becoming an icon for change and innovation,” Kia Motors President and CEO Ho Sung Song said.

“The automotive industry is experiencing a period of rapid transformation, and Kia is proactively shaping and adapting to these changes. Our new logo represents our desire to inspire customers as their mobility needs evolve, and for our employees to rise to the challenges we face in a fast-changing industry,” he added.

Kia Motors also revealed its new global brand slogan, ‘Movement that inspires’. The company will announce a new brand purpose and strategy on January 15.

The launch of the new logo follows the announcement of Kia’s ‘Plan S’ long-term business strategy in 2020. Under Plan S, one of the objectives of the automaker is to take a leading position in the global car market with a focus on popularising electric vehicles and introducing a broad range of mobility services.

Source: IndiaToday

Master motors have released their first sedan in the line of car ceremony held in their Karachi plant today. They first exhibited the car on Friday 11 December 2020 in a media press conference held in Karachi.

Changan Alsvin is a sedan car; it is the first Chinese sedan which has been brought to Pakistan in CKD formation. Usually, all new vehicles are brought in CBU form and sold in limited units before they are brought in CKD form. This also means that Pakistani motor enthusiasts will be able to get a vehicle that hasn’t been driven before by buyers. Moreover, the spare parts of the cars will be available easily in the market.

Changan is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer that is headquartered in Chongqing. The Chinese company will operate in partnership with Master Company. Master company is based in Pakistan, which has established a $100 million plant in Karachi at port Qasim Area.

According to sources, the Master company plant has the capacity to produce 30,000 units in a year. The company has over seventeen dealerships in Pakistan.

Talking to the media on the occasion of media press conference on last week , Master Company CEO Danial Malik said, “We plan to expand our dealerships in Pakistan, hopefully, bring the number up to twenty-five.”

According to rumors, the Changan will be priced somewhere around PKR 2.3 million; meanwhile, the variant will be around PKR 2.5 million. The prices will be revealed in January when the car is opened for bookings.

Malik said, “That they are targeting the hatchback consumers who previously used ‘imported hatchbacks.’ As compared to current hatchback options in the Pakistani auto market, the Changan will offer better and more features. Alsvin is the current generation model, and we plan to introduce Changan models that are the latest in the global market. Booking will be start in January 2021”, he said.

He further implied, “Master motor isn’t a car cartel, and the goal is to give the customer’s choice so that they can decide based on cars performance and compatibility rather than price or segment.”

Things finally seem to be looking up for the automobile industry, especially after the downfall caused by Covid-19.

Customers seem to be excited and hoping that the car would be placed around the price point of 2 million. Hopefully, these new joint ventures entering the market will finally break the monotony created by the two leading car dealers in Pakistan.

General Tyre has rebounded and is trying to recoup the losses it incurred due to covid-19, announced the CEO of the company.

“The company is steadily on the road to recovery after the covid-19 global shutdown. The plant was shut down for nearly 75 days before resuming operations in June,” said Hussain Kuli Khan CEO General Tyre.

He added that the company caters to four segments namely Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM’s); Replacement Market (RM); Institutions; and Export.

“During the last year Replacement market sales kept the company going. This segment strengthened because of the steps by the government to curb smuggling and covid-19 impacting the supply of under-invoiced imported tyres,” he added.

Similarly, he added, the OEM sales have started picking up after a lack luster year while the institutional / army tender sales have also increased, as they are giving preference to indigenous products which are of good quality and price competitive too.

“The exports of the company have also grown significantly in the last couple of years with a hope to continue the trend this year as well. The major destination is Afghanistan,” said the CEO.

It is to be noted that at the end of first quarter of the current financial year the net sales of the company were Rs 3.2 billion (up by 42% against the same period last year).

The company reported profit after tax as Rs 126 million (up by 6.9 times) and the exports for the same period earned the company Rs. 29.3 million (32% increase).

“The company has contributed Rs 13.5 billion to the national exchequer during the last five years in the form of duties and taxes. Also, the company over the last five years has invested Rs 4.7 billion in BMR,” he said.

He added that this year the major addition is the application of joint less cap ply in the radial tyres for more stable road contact and soft ride.

“This has also improved ride (safe ride during high speed) and handling of tyres while it reduces fuel consumptions due to less rolling resistance.

“This new feature in the tyres has extended tyre life due to less heat generation by the tires,” said the CEO.

In equipment category, he added, the company has added a new steelastic machine for making steel belts for radial tyres.

“Also, automatic tyre sorting and conveying system to take tyres from curing to the warehouse via inspection and uniformity has also been introduced.

“Besides, the company has state-of-the-art radial tyre building machines along with hydraulic tyre curing presses for radial tyre curing.

“Moreover, there are automatic cutting and splicing machines to cut body plies of radial tyres,” he added.

Talking about the joint ventures of Chinese tyre companies to set up plants in Pakistan, the CEO said this is a welcome sign.

“The government has to introduce certain measures to keep them while these steps will also benefit the existing tyre manufacturers,” he said.

He added that the government should ensure that a certain percentage of the raw materials for the industry is manufactured locally as currently over 90 percent of the raw material is imported.

“Secondly, the government has to continue in its efforts to abolish smuggling and under invoicing of tyres,” suggested the CEO.

United Bravo has announced a reduction in the price of their car ‘Bravo.’ According to the statement, the new cost of 800cc hatchback United Bravo will be 10,099,000 (Ex. Factory price).

According to the statement, the reduction of 0.1 million comes in lieu of the depreciation of the dollar exchange rate. The dollar, which was previously at 167 Rs in March 2020, has gone down to 160 Rs in October 2020.

The revised prices will apply to orders placed on October 29th, 2020 and onward. Backorder customers will be served as per adjusted prices, and the stock dealership will be invoiced at the new price after October 29th, 2020. The advanced tax will be inclusive in the updated price, and the freight will be charged as per destination. As per company ‘Positive exchange rate impact transferred to customers’

United was the first Pakistani Manufacturer to make their car locally. When they first released the car in November 2018, the cost was 985,000 Rs. However, on July 20th, 2020, they increased the price of Bravo by Rs214, 000 bringing the value up to 11,099,000.

The auto industry should also follow in the footsteps of United Bravo. The price hikes were made due to the dollar rate inflating should be reduced again.
The pandemic has dramatically affected the purchasing power of people. A price reduction could make the prices slightly more affordable to people.

Wah Nobel Group of Companies, a multinational concern, established in 1962
is a Joint Venture between Pakistan Ordnance Factories through Wah Industries Ltd,
SAAB AB, Sweden and Almisehal Company, Saudi Arabia, has inked Memorandum of
Understanding with an over 100 years old Company, Sheikh Zia-ul-Haq & Sons (Pvt)
Ltd, for setting up of an Electric Vehicles and Electric Batteries Manufacturing /
Assembly Plant at Karachi (Buses, Coasters and Coaches) first of its kind. Indeed it is a
landmark event and would act as a catalyst of change in the realm of road
transportation system in the country.

Lt Gen Bilal Akbar, HI(M), Chairman POFs and Wah Nobel Group of
Companies graced the occasion as Chief Guest. The ceremony was also attended by
other high-ranking Military and Civil Officers and Senior Executives of Wah Nobel and
S. Zia-ul Haq & Sons (Pvt) Ltd.

The E-Vehicle technology is getting popular / being adopted around the Globe at
an accelerated pace as Electric Vehicles are far more simple as compared to the
existing vehicles as regard Electrical / Mechanical Parts, maintenance, environment
friendly, does not require fuel / lubricants thus economical on operational cost. Besides
saving on Foreign Exchange on account of fuel import for the country. Indeed market
appeal for Electric Vehicles is immense / increasing.

The Govt’s Electric Vehicles Policy offers huge incentives on account of duties
and taxes for import of Plant and Machinery, Electric Chargers and CKDSs on 1%
Custom Duty and exemption of GST. Above all 5 years Income Tax exemption for
setting up of manufacturing facility for Electric Vehicles and its related equipment.

Wah Nobel in last about 60 years has diversified its business portfolios / is
evolving to keep pace with the contemporary World. It has six companies on its orbit
engaged in diversified business activities and contributing in humble capacity towards
the economic and financial growth of the country. E-Vehicles project is another step in
this direction along with Sheikh Zia-ul-Haq & Sons (Pvt) Ltd. The Project is expected to
be commissioned by mid 2022.

• Press Release

In July 2020, Pakistan motorcycle industry produced and sold the highest ever 300,000 units in a month, which was also appreciated by the Prime Minister’s advisors and ministers in the government’s cabinet.

In August 2020, the country recorded second highest sales of 240,000 units despite heavy rains all over the country and flooding in Karachi.

Contrary to this, the figures of Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) did not give a clear picture of production and sales due to limited numbers of its members.

As per PAMA data, a number of manufacturers witnessed revival in the sales from depressed sales during lockdown due to rising COVID-19 cases in the country.

For instance, Atlas Honda Limited sold 179,003 units in 2MFY21 from 160,109 units in same period last fiscal while Suzuki and Yamaha sold 2,730 and 2,596 units versus 3,162 and 3,805 units in 2MFY21, showing a drop of 14 per cent and 32 per cent respectively.

Road Prince and United Auto Motorcycle registered massive jump in sales to 25,120 and 70,419 units from 16,062 and 52,379 units, up by 56 per cent and 34 per cent respectively.

Chairman Association of Pakistan Motorcycle Assemblers (APMA), Mohammad Sabir Shaikh said the buyers are still upbeat in the markets during September. As a result, the markets are facing a shortage of two wheelers against soaring demand.

One of the reasons of shortage of bikes in the markets are slow supply of parts by the vendors to their respective manufacturing units followed by huge demand from the buyers due to lack of transport in big cities and poor conditions of taxis and rickshaws, he observed adding people avoid sitting in old vehicles and their fares also do not allow buyers to take risk under pandemic situation.

“The current quarter of July-September 2020 will end with a record production and sales in the bike industry especially,” Sabir hoped with confidence saying that bike sales on credit at the showrooms have also been thriving.

Like other countries, COVID-19 had hit Pakistan during March and many markets and industries remained closed for three months, resulting in massive unemployment in the country and pay cuts in industrial and private sector business units. As a result of the above situation, a booming two wheeler market remained subdued, APMA chief recalled.
The largest bike maker – Atlas Honda Limited, however, managed to roll out 871,119 units in FY20 followed by 298,340 by United Motorcycle. Unique by DS Motors rolled out 135,226 units while Road Prince made 97,417 units.

Super Star assembled 65,909 units while Hi Speed ended the 2019-2020 with production of 49,989 units. Super Power produced 46,337 units while Crown assembled 29,171 units.

Zxmco and Metro made 28,039 and 26,969 units while Super Style, Roohi and Bionic produced 2305, 10,680 and 3,123 units.

Union Star bike assembler, a famous brand, declared 3,592 units in June 2020 while market sources said that the company had produced more than 60,000 units in 2019-2020. Some more than 20 small brands produced 56,231 units.

As per the date of Engineering Development Board (EDB), the country assembled 1.761 million units in FY20 while market sources said that the figures have exceeded 2.320 million units.

The market players have always remained skeptical about the actual or genuine production data as many companies are reportedly not sharing the true picture of their production to the government.

This is not the case in two wheelers’ industries as other industrial units are also playing with the figures.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has finally come up with an SRO on September 21, 2020 to check misdeclaration by the manufacturers and monitor and check genuine production of 30 different industrial sectors including motorcycles and auto rickshaws.

In a bid to curb ongoing rampant tax evasion, the FBR has made over 30 major manufacturing sectors “binding for installing electronic monitoring equipment at their premises to monitor real time production. “

The FBR has issued 889 (I) 2010 to amend the Sales Tax Rules, 2006. The manufacturers of over 30 major sectors are required to install “intelligent video analytics” at their premises for electronic monitoring of production on a real-time basis.

Sabir Sheikh said this SRO by the FBR may prove a game changer in unearthing real production data of various sectors depending on how the manufacturers really cooperate with the FBR.

Pak Suzuki Motor Company produced 16,175 units of two wheelers in FY20 followed by 17,987 units by Yamaha Pakistan.

Market sources said these two Japanese assemblers have never engaged in misdeclaration of production due to their market reputation. However, declining production of these assemblers have been attributed to strict rules and regulations and SOPs which they have been following since March. As a result, these two units have been operating with low staff and workers.

The models of these two companies are high priced due to low localization and higher imported parts and components.

Sabir Shaikh said the next quarter of the current fiscal year October to December may prove a good quarter keeping in view good crop prospects in cotton and higher prices.

According to the FBR’s issued rules, the provisions of these new rules shall apply to video surveillance for electronic monitoring of production on real-time basis. The production of specified goods, manufactured in Pakistan, shall be monitored through intelligent video surveillance, and video analytics by installation of equipment including video cameras, sensors, etc, at production lines, as are approved by the Board for real-time collection of data that shows production through object detection and object counting; transmission of data to central control room at the FBR on real-time basis, storage and archiving of data; detection of unexpected stops; quantitative analyses of productions and data analytics for required legal actions.

No person engaged in manufacturing of specified goods shall remove the production from its business premises unless it has undergone the process of intelligent video surveillance. The manufacturers of specified goods shall buy video monitoring equipment only from the authorized vendor. No manufacturer of the specified goods shall buy video monitoring equipment, which is not authorized or approved by the board. The FBR will set up an approval committee, which shall function in accordance with the provisions of these rules. The Project Director shall be the convener of the approval committee and its headquarters shall be located at the FBR House, Islamabad. The Board shall provide secretarial and other allied support required for functioning of the approval committee.

The approval committee shall devise procedures for its functioning, which shall be in accordance with these rules. The vendor shall be required to have and demonstrate ability to provide equipment with high security and efficiency for electronic monitoring of production and video analytics on real-time basis. The equipment offered by the vendor must have the following features including the equipment shall have high definition video camera and sensor that can record and count the production; the equipment shall have ability to weigh the product contained in bags; the equipment shall have ability to integrate with the software recommended by FBR which will be used for transmission of data to central control room; the equipment will conduct video analytics and communicate results thereof to central control room(CCR); the equipment will report any unauthorized stoppages of production through generation of appropriate alarm; the system should have sixty days remotely retrievable local, on-site, and at place, specified by the Board, off-site, data storage at each site; the CCR should have a central data storage capacity capable of storing and retrieving data on long term basis up to five years and the equipment must be stable, fault-tolerant, secure and accessible only by username and password as authorized by the Board.

Sabir said the Excise and Taxation Department, Sindh, has not been providing registration numbers of all brands on a monthly basis to the media and other concerned departments. It is important that how many brands are being registered in the biggest city of Pakistan – Karachi – as there is a need to study the last five years data of registered bikes in Karachi.

This exclusive article has been published in Automark Magazine’s printed edition of October-2020

Malaysian auto giant Proton, which has collaborated with Al-Haj Automobile, the assembler of FAW automobiles in Pakistan, will be launching its SUV crossover X70 by end of this year along with a sedan named Saga.

An per news, company has confirmed that it will launch the two vehicles by the year end and initially, they will offer variants in CBU condition. The company will switch to local assembly by June 2021.

The X70 is the same car former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad gifted Prime Minister Imran Khan in December 2019.

According to the news, the SUV crossover X70 will compete with Korean companies Hyundai and Kia by offering the car “with more features and lesser price”.

The Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage have 2000cc engines and the X70 has a 1500cc engine. But the official claimed its “1500cc turbo engine is much more powerful than the Tucson or Sportage engines”.

Proton has received a green-field status under the Auto Development Policy 2016-21. Under the status, new companies such as Proton, Kia, Hyundai, and Changan etc will be paying less duties compared to firms already operating in Pakistan such as Toyota, Honda and Suzuki.

The ADP 2016-21 policy ends in June 2021 and the models introduced by new companies, known as new entrants in the industry, will be considered for duty relaxations.

According to another source, all new companies will try to launch as many models as they can before the ADP 2016-21 policy ends.

It is expected that the government will roll out the new ADP next year for passenger cars with a focus on electric cars. The Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy has already been rolled out for two and three-wheel vehicles, trucks and buses.

The policy for passenger cars has not been given because the ADP 2016-21 has yet to end. The Engineering Development Board (EDB), the government’s wing that falls under the Ministry of Industries and Production, is reluctant to go against the running policy that assured new entrants that the new policy will not be given until the current ADP ends.

Why does Pakistan’s auto industry likes SUVs?
The addition of the Proton X70 SUV crossover will make it the fourth SUV to be launched in the category in the last two years, according to JS Global Capital research analyst Ahmed Lakhani. Regal Automobiles launched the SUV Prince Glory earlier this year and Changan is also gearing up to launch its SUV and a sedan before the ADP 2016-21 policy ends in June.

Lakhani says the industry finds high-end cars–expensive cars such as the Sportage, Tucson or X70–a lucrative segment. The Sportage and Tucson prices are in the vicinity of Rs5 million. It is expected that the X70 will be sold at around Rs4 million.

“I think it shows that the rich are becoming richer,” Lakhani said. “They have the buying power and they are buying. There’s not a significant demand for low price vehicles that may help companies earn on volumes.”

Lakhani added that low-end passenger cars’ data doesn’t represent the actual population. The lowest price of a reliable brand is well above the Rs1 million mark.
“The low-priced 70cc bikes actually represent our population. The sales of low-priced Chinese 70cc bikes are increasing every year,” he said.

Courtesy: SAMAA