Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 26
By Farhad Daneshvar, Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:
The Islamic Republic’s giant car manufacturing company, Iran Khodro (IKCO), has exported 26,500 cars to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) over the past 10 years, Iran Khodro told Trend.
Sabina Nobari, the director of America, Asia, Europe and CIS region at IKCO, has said that 5,000 cars out of the total number went to Azerbaijan through a local company.
According to Nobari, Azerbaijan’s AzEuro car LLC has purchased about 5,000 Iran Khodro-made cars including Samand, Soren and Runna brands as CBU (Complete Built Up) units over the mentioned period.
However, AzEuro car’s purchase of Iran Khodro cars dropped significantly following last year’s national currency devaluation in Azerbaijan as international oil prices took a sharp tumble, she added.
In the meantime, Iran Khodro has developed a plan to invest in Azerbaijan by launching a joint venture as the Iranian manufacturer has already carried out an in-depth study on the neighboring country’s car market.
The car factory jointly founded by the two countries in Azerbaijan’s Neftchala industrial park is expected to produce its first cars as of late-May 2017, Nobari noted.
The joint venture will produce 1000 cars including Iran Khodro brands of Samand, Soren, Runna and Dena in its first year of activity and the factory is projected to increase its annual output to 10,000 cars within three years.
According to the official, there are talks underway to export the joint venture’s products to regional countries such as Georgia and Ukraine.
Iran Khodro owns 25 percent of the shares of the joint venture and the rest belongs to the Azerbaijani side.
IKCO is Iran's major automaker, producing about 600,000 cars a year.