Recently an interesting piece was published by Auto Evolution revealing that only the Russian automaker Lada sells older cars than the American EV maker Tesla.
On average, Tesla models are 7.8 years old whereas Lada’s average is 18.9 years. Felipe Munoz was in charge of the JATO Dynamics study. His methodology was to count the time starting from when it was presented for the first time, not when the vehicle was first delivered.
That makes the Model S date back from March 2009, or three years before the first customer got delivery of one. Technically the Tesla Model S is now almost 13 years old.
The report also drags Indian automaker Mahindra, saying if Tesla cannot beat Lada as the company with the oldest lineup, it ties up with Mahindra. The Indian company has twice as many vehicles, but their average time on the market is the same 7.8 years as Tesla EVs.
Related: More Than 17 Obsolete Cars on Sale in Pakistan
Ironically however, Felipe Munoz of JATO Dynamics was not aware of Pak Suzuki, the automaker best known for selling obsolete vehicles in Pakistan ever since its inception. If the criteria of counting the time starting from when a model was presented for the first time, the Pak Suzuki’s average is even worse than that of Lada. Let’s go into the calculation.
Pak Suzuki currently sells 6 local assembled models in Pakistan. Ravi and Bolan are both almost 44 years old now as they debuted back in 1979. The Wagon R that we have here debuted in 2010 making it a 13 years old car (considering we are on the verge of welcoming year 2023). The Celerio which is marketed in Pakistan as Cultus debuted in 2014, making it 9 years old. The 8th gen Alto debuted in December 2014 and is 8 years old already. While the recently launched Swift dates back to December 2016, making it a 6 years old model.
The collective age of these 6 Pak Suzuki models (44+44+13+9+8+6) is 124, and the average age results in 20.66 years which is even worse than the 18.9 years average of Russian Lada. Perhaps Auto Evolution would want to update their article and the title should be “Only Pak Suzuki and Lada sells older cars than Tesla of USA” instead of only the Russian automaker Lada sells older cars than the American EV maker Tesla.
A computer animation professional with over 23 years of industry experience having served in leading organizations, TV channels & production facilities in Pakistan. An avid car enthusiast and petrolhead with an affection to deliver quality content to help shape opinions. Formerly written for PakWheels as well as major publications including Dawn. Founder of CarSpiritPK.com