We know that the economic conditions in Pakistan are not so good these days and after Coronavirus pandemic, the scenario has got even worse. As per the details, numerous industries have had to face a complete shutdown subsequently significantly reducing production and sales. Likewise is for the automotive industry and Toyota Corolla is suffering at the most.
Downfall of Automotive Industry
If take an analysis of the automotive industry, it has also seen a great downfall of the in-demand cars from the level when it enjoyed magnificent business in terms of production and sales. Among all of the cars from the automotive market of Pakistan, Toyota Corolla was one of those at the top most position in Pakistan automobile market.
Background of Toyota Corolla
Toyota Indus Motor Company (IMC) began its commercial production in Pakistan in 1993 with a production capacity of 20 cars per day. The first car that they assembled was the 7th generation AE100 Corolla.
It was ranked as one of the most esteemed and beloved Corollas in Pakistan because of its simple yet elegant design, amazing performance as well as strong reliability. That’s the reason it remained in production for 9 years in Pakistan. Since then, Toyota IMC has now ascended production to 275 cars per day and has sold millions of units of the Toyota Corolla in Pakistan.
The Reason Behind Success of Toyota Corolla Cars
Although there are so many reasons to be credited for the success of Toyota Corolla cars but the main reason was that it has always been among the very few cars that were offered multiple variants in Pakistan. Moreover, it has remained the only locally assembled sedan for good long time with a diesel engine option. So, if we say that there was a time when Corolla has remained everything to everyone, it wouldn’t be wrong.
Year 2020 – Bad Time for Toyota
Where everything is turning out to be odd this year, another thing which turned out to be noticeable was that this year wasn’t making any good deal for Toyota. According to the details, the recent data released by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturer Association (PAMA) says that the sales of Toyota Corolla have plunged by a significant notch in the past couple of years. During the Financial Year (FY) 2018-19, Toyota sold a total of 56,720 Corolla units whereas, during FY 2019-20, the total number of Corolla units sold across Pakistan was a mere 22,140, which accounts for a decrease of 61% in sales as compared to FY 2018-2019.
Toyota Corolla Starts Losing Worth – The Possible Reasons?
- One thing is obvious that COVID-19 has let the economy in Pakistan go topsy-turvy so we can take it as the reason for Toyota Corolla to lose worth in Pakistan. All of the showrooms and manufacturing plants were shut down in April 2020 with no cars leaving the showroom or the manufacturing plant.
- Apart from that, it was clearly under observation that all automakers played price hike game with their cars by a huge margin this year, following the reasons such as the devaluation of Pakistani Rupee as compared to US Dollar, thus resulting in a rise in the manufacturing costs.
- According to the statistics for the whole year prices, Toyota IMC has revised the prices 3 times in one year, with an average of 15% increase in prices as compared to just a year ago. Although there was another increase in prices announced by Toyota IMC close to the announcement of the 2020 budget, mercifully, Toyota Corolla and Yaris didn’t get that price hike.
Toyota Yaris – Replacement to XLI & GLI
Then there was the introduction of the Yaris replacing the XLI and GLI variants of the Corolla, the sales figures kept on going to be radically different. The automaker claims that the Corolla is Toyota IMC’s flagship car. At present, the price of Toyota Yaris Car in Pakistani market is PKR 24.7 to 29.6 lacs. Well… we do accept it but even then, Toyota IMC should make the things rise up from the downfall if they want to keep Toyota in the list of evergreen legendary cars.
