
KARACHI As Pakistan aims for emerging-economy status, its automotive industry is already motoring along at a healthy clip. Annual passenger car sales recently topped 200,000 units for the first time, and all of the country's automakers are planning production increases to satisfy brisk domestic demand.
New players are also flocking to this market of 200 million, lured by government incentives and the opportunity to tap a growing middle class. For now, there may be enough growth to go around, but these new faces -- which include the likes of Renault of France and Kia Motors of South Korea -- could threaten the dominance of Japanese makers.