Auto production in Iran increasingly dependent on China
- Automotive production in Iran is evolving like a roller coaster. It is directly impacted by Western economic sanctions which are softened and hardened regularly, without much logic for the uninitiated. But Iran finds the solution by sourcing from China, either to assemble Peugeot vehicles (not recognized by the parent company) which represent a large part of the Iranian car fleet, or to assemble Chinese vehicles of different brands. Chinese brands accounted for 11% of Iranian automotive production in 2022, constantly increasing, and this share is expected to increase further in the coming years, as in Europe and Russia for example.
- Over the past 20 years, Iranian automobile production reached a volume of 1.6 million vehicles in 2010 and 2011 before collapsing in 2012 and 2013 (650,000 vehicles). Iranian production then gradually increased to 1.5 million units in 2017, before falling again to 800,000 units in 2019 and 725,000 in 2020.
- In 2021, Iranian automobile production resumed its growth to reach 1.2 million units in 2022 and according to the figures recorded in the first quarter of 2023, Iranian automobile production should fall to 1 million units over the entire 2023 year, of which 51% assembled by the Iran Khodro company (including 36% of Peugeot vehicles not accounted by the Stellantis group) against 46% in 2022 and 31% assembled by the SAIPA company against 43% in 2022. Chinese carmakers, in strong growth, should represent 18% of Iranian automobile production in 2023, against 11% in 2022.