Lucky Motors has confirmed that it will launch its subcompact SUV Kia Stonik by the end of next month, but the company has declined to comment on the price of the car due to currency exchange rate fluctuations.
“We don’t want to predict the price,” said a company official. “You never know where the dollar would go next month.” Just yesterday, the dollar hit a record high in Pakistan at Rs168.94, leaping Rs16 in four months.
There is a reason for Kia Lucky’s reluctance to talk prices given the dollar-rupee dance. Pakistan’s auto industry is heavily dependent on imported car parts, especially new entrants such as Kia, which have not localized car parts much. So, when the dollar rate goes up, their cost of production goes up and vice versa. According to some estimates, some cars are made of 70% imported parts, called CKDs (completely knocked down units).
In addition to the Stonic car, Kia Lucky will introduce the Pujao 2008 model (Peugeot) in December this year. It is a car manufactured by the French PSA Group with 1200 cc and 1600 cc petrol engines and 1400 cc and 1600 cc diesel engines. The expectation is that both petrol engine variants will be introduced.
The Pujau 2008’s compact SUV is slightly larger than the Stonic, but slightly smaller than the Kia Sportage.
The Pujao 2008 could be priced between Rs 36 lakh and Rs 41 lakh and the company does not want its own cars to compete, especially in terms of price.
According to reports, the 2000cc Sportage Kia is the company’s best-selling car in Pakistan. This vehicle has been the first crossover EUV in Pakistan. But this segment has now seen a sudden growth as Hyundai, MG Motors, Sazgar Group, Regal Automobiles and Proton have launched crossovers in all categories.