Reporting "AsreKhodro", Iran is the Middle East’s biggest car producer and its car industry, comprised of companies such as Bahman Group, Iran Khodro and Saipa, ranks 12th in the world for total production and 5th in the world in terms of fastest growth. With annual production at 1.6 million vehicles, Iran’s automotive industry accounts for 10 percent of Iranian GDP. Automative industry in Iran began by assembling Mercedes-Benz trucks back in 1955. Following that “Iran National” (now Iran Khodro) , Iran’s first passenger car manufacturing company, set up the production and assembly line of “Hillman Hunter” in 1966 after a deal was struck between the Rootes Group and Iran National's director, Mahmoud Khayami. The resulting Paykan (Persian for arrow) saloon, pick-up and taxi models became known as Iran's national car. Two years after, in 1968, Saipa factory started the assembly and production of Citroën Dyane-where it was called the “Jyane”, a Persian word meaning "fierce" or "ferocious"- and Renault5. After 1979 the government took the ownership of all automotive manufacturing companies.
Nowadays Iran Khodro Industrial Group with cooperation of Peugeot Citroën is producing different passenger cars such as Peugeot 405 and Peugeot 206 in addition to the “Samand” which is Iran’s national automobile built on the Peugeot 405 platform, originally using the XU7JP/L3 engine, amongst others. With help from china, IKCO has been producing a new passenger car by the name of “Dena” although after making 6443 units in the past year, IKCO announced that they plan to allocate the production of this car only to outside markets as an export product. IKCO is self-sufficient in mass powertrain production, without any foreign assistance. It has several subsidiary companies such as SAPCO which was established in 1993 to manage the supplying chain of automotive parts in IKCO, with the main aim of being the best and most respected supplier of automotive parts and technical services and also Iran Khodro Diesel Company which was established initially under the name of Khawar Industrial Group in early 1966. In 1999 Iran Khodro Company merged its bus and midi-bus production lines with Khawar Industrial Group truck production lines together and the new company Iran Khodro Diesel public joint stock was established to manufacture different types of commercial vehicles for domestic and overseas markets.
SAIPA is the second largest car manufacturing company in Iran and together with Kia Motors has been producing “Pride” since 1993. Pride still remains the best-selling car in Iran and its production exceeded 250,000 units in 2013. Several manufacturing companies produce auto body parts for SAIPA’s production line, one of which is Mega Motors and it provides engines, gearboxes and axles for Pride, Tiba and Nissan. Other companies produce car seats, glass, platform, headlights, battery, bumpers and seat belts. Almost 85% of Pride body parts are made in Iran and the rest 15% are imported causing reduction in production volume after sanctions.
Iran’s automotive manufacturing companies also export their products to other countries overseas among which are Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia and Iraq. They have also set up production lines for the production of Samand and Pride in Belarus and Venezuela.
