Iran Ups Car Production nearly 50 Percent

Iran’s auto production has increased considerably in 2014 as compared with the year before, statistical reports said. The 2014 Production Statistics by the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA) revealed Iran’s auto production increased by 46.7 percent in the 12-month period.

The latest figures indicate Iranian automakers produced 1,090,846 cars and commercial vehicles last year, of which 925,975 were cars and 164,871 were other vehicles.

In February, President of Iran’s largest carmaker, Iran-Khodro Company, Hashem Yekehzare said his company’s production rose by 70 percent this Iranian calendar year (which started on March 21, 2014).

Yekehzare also said that the country’s local carmakers are producing 2500 cars on a daily.

Meanwhile, Yekehzare said 54 percent of Iranian car market belongs to the IKCO since late August, adding that IKCO plans to manufacture new products to meet the country’s needs and expand exports.

Meantime, a deputy head of IKCO said in November that the company had exported 1400 sets of cars over the first 7 months of the Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22), showing a hundred percent of growth compared to similar period last year.

“IKCO’s exports show that it exported 1400 cars over last seven months,” Deputy Head of Exports and International Affairs of the IKCO Ali Elmi said in November.

Iran’s auto industry is the biggest in the Middle East which it has developed for five decades. The country produced 1.6 million vehicles in 2011, the year new sanctions were introduced by the Europeans.