Lucky Motor Corporation, formerly known as KIA Lucky Motors Pakistan, has re-opened the booking of its Kia Stonic EX+ after jacking up the rate by Rs780,000. The car is now selling for Rs5.5 million in Pakistan.

In what the company called a “celebratory limited-time offer” in April this year, it announced a massive 25% decrease – Rs1.513 million in the price of KIA’s Stonic EX+ in Pakistan. However, the company soon suspended booking till September 2024, saying that it has received an overwhelming response.

However, two months before it said it would resume booking, the company has now said that it was opening orders with effect from July 1, 2024 with delivery in December onwards.

“We were encouraged by the overwhelming response we received on the 5-year celebration limited-time offer on the Kia Stonic,” it said in a notice.

“However, due to more than expected demand, we had no option but to temporarily suspend the booking as we wanted to have clarity on our stock situation.”

“Keeping in mind our customers’ desire to book Kia Stonic, we are pleased to announce the reopening of the bookings of Kia Stonic EX+ at a price of PKR 5.5 million.”

Auto industry analyst, H.M. Shahzad, who is chairman of All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association (APMDA), said investors bought all the inventory when Kia reduced the price by over Rs1.5 million.

However, investors were charging around Rs0.8 million ‘own-money’ on the sale of Stonic vehicles after the price reduction.

“The company has now reintroduced it after seeing buyers were willing to buy it at around Rs0.8 million higher,” he said.

Earlier, when the company reduced almost 25% of the car price, an analyst Business Recorder reached out to said the decrease is due to low offtake of the vehicle, and less to do with “celebration”.