Reeling from the impact of a sharp drop in the rupee's value against the US dollar, Atlas Honda, Pak Suzuki, and Yamaha on Monday notified a hike in prices of their bikes by up to Rs20,500.
Honda raised the price of its CD70 model by Rs5,000 to Rs116,500. Meanwhile, it raised the cost of its top-of-the-line CB150F (Silver) price by Rs15,000 to Rs342,900.
Moreover, Yamaha’s low end model YB125Z will now be sold for Rs273,000 after a price hike of Rs18,000. However, its top-of-the-line YBR125G variant saw price increase of Rs20,500 and it is now priced at Rs312,500.
Pak Suzuki also jacked up bike prices by up to Rs16,000. The company had earlier notified its dealers to suspend motorcycle booking.
GD110S will now selling for Rs229,000 after an increase of Rs10,000. GS150's price went up by Rs12,000. The new price is Rs251,000. The new price of GS150SE is Rs271,000 after an increase of Rs15,000 while the company increased price of its top-of-the-chain GR150 price by Rs16,000. The new price is Rs365,000.
Other motorcycle makers such as United Auto Industries have also announced price increases.
“Motorcycle manufacturers are resorting to hiking prices of their products because of sharp rupee depreciation,” said Association of Pakistan Motorcycle Assemblers (APMA) Chairman Sabir Sheikh.
The rupee declined Rs34.5 or 14.5% in the month of July 2022 alone. On Monday, the local currency closed at 238.84 against the greenback following a marginal appreciation.
Sheikh highlighted “motorcycle sales in Pakistan are witnessing a decline because continuous price hikes are denting the purchasing power of the consumers”.
Due to hike in fuel and bike prices, buyers of Chinese motorcycles have reduced because this segment is price sensitive, Sheikh said. Chinese bikes are priced at a lower level than Japanese ones.
The seasoned auto industry analyst said inflation also forced a lot of car-owners, belonging to the middle income group, to shift towards bikes.
“The car owners who opted to shift to bikes initially bought Japanese models, however, the sales of Japanese bikes are also starting to drop as their prices are skyrocketing,” he added.
He pointed out that while sales of such motorcycles in urban areas were on a decline, the rural areas were seeing an increase in demand.