KIA Lucky Motors on Monday notified another steep incline in the prices of its major sellers in Pakistan. According to the notification issued by the company, an increase of up to 300,000 has been announced. The company announced the decision in view of the steep depreciation of the rupee. In the notification released by the company, it is clearly stated that “due to further PKR devaluation to USD coupled with the exuberant increase in sea freight on the import of parts, LMCL is constrained to revise the prices” of its products. After the price increase KIA Picanto MT which formerly valued at around Rs. 2,400,000 is now priced at Rs. 2,600,000.
The ‘AT’ variant of the Picanto saw a similar increase in value and is currently priced at Rs. 2,700,000. Moreover, all the variants of Sportage saw an increase of Rs. 300 thousand taking the All-Wheel Drive (AWD) variant of the Sportage up to Rs. 6,300,000. Finally, all variants of the KIA Stonic increased in value by Rs. 2,750,000. It is pertinent to mention that KIA’s car prices have increased for the third time in just four months.
Lucky Motor Corp became the latest carmaker to increase prices across its entire KIA lineup, citing currency devaluation and rising freight rates.https://t.co/LAurMJAVOw#LuckyMotorCorp #increaseprices #KIA #Rupee #USdollars #PKR pic.twitter.com/1pUUB16vqm
— Business Recorder (@brecordernews) April 18, 2022
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Rupee devaluation:
Amidst the political turmoil and uncertainty, the value of the rupee continued its downward spiral till it plummeted to the value of Rs. 190 against a dollar on the night of the former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ouster. After breaking all records, the rupee stabilized there until it started its recovery. Today the dollar is valued at around 184.4 against a dollar. Following the uncertainty and the devaluation of the rupee, many companies have increased the prices of their products.
A day after KIA announced the price increase, an update issued by the company Changan also increased the prices of its cars. After the fresh price hike, the base variant of Changan Alsvin now costs Rs. 2,769,000. The top-of-the-line variant of the Alsvin has soared to Rs. 3,219,000 compared to Rs. 2,939,000 before the price hike. Changan Karvan and K-9 have also witnessed a similar price hike taking the base variant of the Karvan to cost Rs. 2 million.
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It is pertinent to mention that Lucky Motors has not notified of an increase in the Price of KIA Sorento and KIA Carnival in its notification.
Meanwhile, Atlas Honda, Toyota Indus Motor Company (IMC), and Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) have also increased the prices of their vehicles in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s total imports of CKD and SKD kits for cars have crossed $1.2 billion in just over nine months of FY22. Compared to this, in FY21, the total imports were valued at around $1.1 billion.