4 new Chinese cars enter Iran market in the coming months
While French carmakers are still to deliver on their joint ventures with Iranian firms, seven new Chinese vehicles are due to arrive in the market before the end of the current fiscal next March 2018.
Sino-Iran partnerships have thrived due to the absence of western carmakers during the nuclear sanction years that ended last year. Now with the French again making a foray, the Chinese are working harder to protect their market share with new and, seemingly, inviting models.
Reports on local auto production indicate that several new Chinese cars from low budget sedans to mid-range crossovers will be on offer in the coming months, local automotive website Asbe Bokhar reported.
Joint ventures with the Chinese have a small share of the domestic market (10%), but over the years have registered significant growth with some reports claiming that the quality of Chinese cars, which most Iranians consider unacceptable, improving gradually.
Most new models will be sold by Kerman Khodro and its subsidiaries.
Karmania, a subsidiary of the company, which is the official representative of China’s BYD, has announced that it will start selling two new models Song and Tang in the coming months.
The Song is a small crossover that will reportedly cost 1.27 billion rials ($33,000). It has a 2 -liter, 203 hp engine matched with a six-speed automatic transmission.
Tang is a gasoline/electric hybrid car and claimed the title of the world’s top selling plug-in hybrid in 2016.
Unveiled in 2014, Tang follows the example of Volvo XC90 and is equipped with three engines, a 2-liter internal combustion gasoline engine which delivers 202 hp and two electric motors each churning out 150 hp. The three engines total output is said to be 498 hp.
Another subsidiary of Kerman Khodro, Rigan Khodro is to offer two new Chinese cars, Leopaard CS10 and Hawtai A25. Currently prototypes of the models are being tested.
After the tests, the two models are planned to be imported as complete knock-down units and will be assembled by Rigan Khodro.
Leopaard CS10 is a compact SUV unveiled by GAC Changfeng at the 2014 Beijing motor show. It is powered by a Mitsubishi turbocharged 2-liter engine, which is paired to an automatic gearbox and employs a layout of front-engine, real-time four-wheel drive.
Hawtai A25 is a small city crossover first displayed in 2014, coming with a 4-cylinder turbo, gasoline engine and equipped with a 4-speed automatic gearbox.
According to the deputy chief of Rigan Khodro, Shervin Parsian, the cars will be assembled in the southern Arg-e-Jadid Special Economic Zone near Bam in Kerman Province.
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