Iranian Automaker to Design New Platform

Iran’s largest carmaker, Iran-Khodro Company (IKCO) announced on Sunday that its R&D center aims to design a new domestic platform this year.
IKCO Deputy CEO for Strategy and Planning Hamidreza Taghavinejad described design and development of new platforms as the main strategy of the Iranian auto industry in the current decade, and said, “This approach was proposed in the IKCO after the production of Samand and following that, various projects were implemented on different platforms like Peugeot 206, Peugeot 405 and Tondar 90 (Logan).

IKCO’s CEO Najmeddin had earlier announced designing of two new platforms in B and D segments with an investment of $1m. IKCO intends to produce ten new cars on these platforms by 2021.

According to Najmeddin, part makers in IKCO’s supply chain are determined to cooperate in this project. He said that IKCO will design and develop the main parts of the platform while the smaller parts will be designed and prototyped by part makers and consultant companies.

As the biggest car manufacturer in the Middle East, IKCO has made various strategic plans to become a global car manufacturing brand owner. Some of these plans have so far been successfully realized. Since 1996, in a 10 year program, IKCO managed to achieve the knowledge and ability of design car body, powertrain and suspension system. Samand and Soren are the outcomes of these strategic plans.

Following the first phase, IKCO started to think about increasing the number of products and the amount of global sales as well as development of its own brand engine. This period took about five years from 2006 to 2011. IKCO presented Runna and Dena in this period of time.

IKCO is currently experiencing a new phase. The main goal in this phase is to design and develop new platforms, the company said.