Tehran, Iran, April 25
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad – Trend:
Iran intends to produce 1.8 million cars this fiscal year (began March 20, 2018), Mohammad Reza Najafi Manesh, director of the Iranian Auto Parts Manufacturers Association told Trend.
Manesh said that this year marks an important mile-stone for the country’s automobile industry, as it has been planned to inject some 32,000 billion tomans for its upgrade.
On the other hand, new products such as Peugeot 301 and a co-product with Citroën are expected to appear on the market, he said.
"Additionally, Renault's contract will also be operational during the year. Another recently assembled product - Peugeot 2008 - is now available on the market," Manesh said. "So, the whole set of these factors determines that the Iranian auto industry will have a better year."
Referring to problems the automobile industry is facing, he added that one of the major issues is that the National Institute for Standardization requires domestic manufacturers of automobile engines to have new standards for their vehicles in order to obtain the necessary permits from the Institute, and the manufacturers of parts for exported vehicles need to produce the components that meet the needs of those vehicles.
In all of these cases, that may cause problems as well as some opportunities for automakers.
Announcing that Iran intends to produce 1.8 million cars this year, Najafi Manesh said that with this in mind, everyone should help reach this level.
As for Iran-Azerbaijan joint car plant, he said that despite Iran did not provide any funds but supported the project only by technical knowledge, this is a useful agreement for it as Iran pursued its intent to enter a new market.