Pakistan’s car industry has had a rocky 2023 thus far. At first, currency instability prompted multiple price hikes. After that, the GST hike on SUVs and cars with engines bigger than 1.4 liters prompted another price increase wave.
As a result, Sazgar Engineering Works Limited (SEWL) has increased the prices of Haval and BAIC SUVs by considerable margins. Effective as of March 8, the new prices are as follows:
| Models | Old Prices (Rs.) | New Prices (Rs.) | Increase (Rs.) |
| Haval H6 1.5T FWD | 8,525,000 | 8,999,000 | 474,000 |
| Haval H6 2.0T AWD | 9,749,000 | 10,348,000 | 600,000 |
| Haval H6 HEV | 11,095,000 | 11,695,000 | 600,000 |
| BAIC BJ40 Plus | 10,585,000 | 11,225,000 | 640,000 |
Last month, SEWL shut down production citing insufficient inventory. Last week, however, the company restarted producing luxury SUVs.
Yet, SEWL is facing the same horrors of the economic meltdown as the rest of the industry. Since the company only makes and sells crossover and off-road SUVs, it has also seen a major increase in prices, which will likely cause the demand to decline.
The automakers have appealed to the government for relief. Due to a dearth of essential items and insufficient foreign exchange reserves, the government will likely keep the auto sector on the back burner.
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