Chapter 02
The Grid
names on the start line. report their sales to the manufacturers' association and can be ranked. The rest publish nothing, which is itself part of the story, though official production data now let us size them as a group. Tap any slot for the full card.
Positions are by four-wheelers sold in FY26, for makers that report. Standing ("leader", "squeezed" and so on) is our reading of the figures on each card.
cars, SUVs and light commercial vehicles were built in FY26 by assemblers outside the association: nearly one in five of everything made in the country, and more than Toyota's assembler built. The Bureau of Statistics counts every plant; the association counts its members. The difference is the ones that do not report.
Sizing the silent ones.
Changan: about 15,000 a year, by its own published totals. Omoda and Jaecoo: 10,000 built in their first eight months, by their own statement. BYD: roughly 5,000–6,500, worked out from its audited revenue; all imported. Kia, MG and the smaller assemblers: about 24,000 between them, which public data cannot split. The Market shows the working.
Production built is not the same as cars sold, and the two counts are compiled separately, so read 47,873 as close rather than exact.
Follow the money
Three listed makers, three very different businesses.
Pak Suzuki left the stock exchange and no longer publishes results. The other three large members do, and the gap between them explains where the launches are aimed.
Profit kept from every Rs100 of sales.
Profit after tax as a share of revenue, latest financial year.
| Maker | Revenue | Profit after tax | Four-wheelers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indus Motor (Toyota) | Rs258.8bn | Rs25.5bn | 45,035 |
| Sazgar (Haval, Tank, ORA) | Rs191.7bn | Rs23.6bn | 19,188 |
| Honda Atlas | Rs122.3bn | Rs3.2bn | 25,621 |
Sazgar sells fewer than half as many vehicles as Indus Motor and earns nearly as much. Honda sells a third more than Sazgar and earns about a seventh. A Rs9–20 million hybrid SUV carries a margin that a Rs4.9 million sedan cannot. Every newcomer has read the same accounts.
How full each plant ran.
Vehicles built as a share of the yearly capacity each company states in its own accounts.
| Maker | Paid to the state | Profit kept | State's take per rupee of profit |
|---|
The three companies say they paid Rs281 billion to the national exchequer between them in their latest year, in duties, sales tax, excise, levies and income tax, and kept Rs52 billion as profit. On Toyota's and Honda's own unit counts that is about Rs3.1 million and Rs2.2 million a vehicle. The single biggest stakeholder in every car sold is the Treasury.
The disruptors
Three things are rewriting the grid at once.
Chinese-origin badges selling or announced, through about ten local partners. A decade ago there were none in volume. Only Haval's numbers are public: 19,111 last year. Most of the others publish no figure at all.
of the 23 models brokers expected between June and December 2026 are electric, plug-in or range-extender. Worldwide, petrol-only cars fell below half of new sales for the first time in January–June 2026.
used cars imported by dealers in September 2026, up from 48 in May. A five-year-old Japanese hatchback is the one rival the Alto has never had to face in a showroom.
The launch board, June to December 2026.
Models a brokerage expected in the second half of the year. Dates slip and some have already arrived; treat it as a queue, not a timetable. Of 21 named here, three run on petrol alone.
The ones in trouble
Who is losing ground, and how we know.
Trouble here means a number moving the wrong way, not a rumour. Where a brand simply publishes nothing, we say so rather than guess.
Yamaha
Ended motorcycle production in September 2025 after sales fell from 23,610 in FY19 to 1,333. The association blamed a rule tying parts imports to export targets; the company cited a change in business policy.
Hyundai Nishat
Its line-up is now mostly hybrids, the category the taxman hit. Tucson 224 in a quarter against 1,738; Santa Fe 29 against 192; 154 Palisades built and 2 sold.
Honda Atlas
Sales up 53%, gross margin down to 7.8%. Seven in ten of its cars are the City, pinned below Rs5 million by a tax threshold while its imported parts get dearer. The BR-V is gone.
Suzuki's middle
The market leader is not in trouble, but its ladder is losing rungs: WagonR, Bolan and Ravi dropped, Cultus cut to one variant. In July–September it built 1,600 Fronx crossovers and sold 171.
The tractor makers
Millat and Al-Ghazi sold 28,791 between them in FY26 from plants built for 100,000. The business now waits on each province's subsidy announcement.
BAIC, Proton, Prince
BAIC sold 68 vehicles in FY26. Proton and Prince-DFSK are outside the association; we found no 2026 sales figure, launch or price announcement for either. All three arrived on the same wave of incentives; none has reached scale.
Read the grid again
Seven business groups, more than twenty badges.
The government's think-tank points out that local partners have been stacking foreign brands to keep their plants busy. Count the groups, not the logos, and the market looks far less crowded and far more concentrated.
| Pakistani group | Foreign badges |
|---|---|
| Lucky | Kia (Korea) · Peugeot (France) · GAC, Aion, Hyptec (China) |
| Nishat | Hyundai (Korea) · Omoda, Jaecoo (China) |
| Sazgar | Haval, Tank, ORA (Great Wall, China) · BAIC (China) |
| Master | Changan, Deepal, Nevo, Avatr (China) · Chery (China) · Master trucks and buses |
| United | Jetour (China) · United motorcycles |
| Hubco with Mega | BYD, Denza (China) |
| Ghandhara | JAC (China) · Isuzu (Japan) |