The Tehran-based automaker Khodro Corporation announced the official launch of the country’s first locally designed and assembled vehicle brand, the Samand. The family car is made up of 85 percent domestically produced autoparts.
Officials expect the Samand brand sales to earn the government up to five billion dollars is value-added tax over the next five-year period, reported the official IRNA. The same sources estimated the national project had so far cost nearly $50 million in government investments.
The Samand engine is a 97-horsepower 1,800 cc engine. A fully automated assembly line has produced 2,800 Samands so far, with production is scheduled to reach 43,000 units by April 2003, and more than double that then on. The 45 percent state-owned Iran Khodro plant manufactured 220,000 passenger vehicles last year, with the British Paykan model in the lead.
Iran produced 30 percent more vehicles in the first 11 months of the Iranian year 1380, which started March 21, 2001. Official statistics recently published by the Ministry of Industries and Mines indicated that all in all 343,941 units were assembled during that period, 289,954 of which were passenger cars. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
