Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Text | Dedee

Recently, there has been a lot of news about Iran. Among them, there was a little news that shocked the car circle at the end of last year: Russia will import cars from Iran.

Unexpectedly, when the industrial level of the Big Brother caught up with that of the United States and Britain, he could not build a normal car after the West cut off the supply of spare parts, and what is more, the gap was filled by Iran.

It is said that in August last year, IKCO, the leader of Iran's auto industry, showed off a major model for the Russian market at the Moscow Motor Show: the Tara compact sedan based on the Peugeot 301 platform, with EBD+ABS+ESC / TCS+HSA+EBA.

If the appearance and configuration of this car are in China, sales are estimated to be in the single digits, but the Russian brothers were moved to tears.

Yes, Iran, which we only see in the news every day, has a relatively complete automobile industry chain, as well as a number of car dealers and car brands with a long history. Although most of their products are based on Peugeot's old technology 10 or even 20 years ago, they still have the ability to reduce dimensionality for Russian industry.

For example, IKCO mentioned earlier is not only the most important car manufacturer in Iran, its overall strength is second only to Iran's national oil company, and ranks second in Iran.

Today, let's talk about Iran's complicated and confusing auto industry.

The beginning of the Iranian car originated from Muzafar Dinsha, the fifth king of the Kajah dynasty. The old Iranian emperor once bought a Ford in Belgium-- not a Model T. The old emperor left in 1907, so it is likely to be a model A car produced in 1903.

Of course, we all know that Ford was a typical start-up at that time, so the quality of the car can not be said to be Excelsior, at least there are a lot of problems. The biggest problem with this type A car is that it is good at generating a lot of smoke. So at that time, everyone secretly called the old emperor's Ford a "smoking chariot."

In the 1920s, the Kaiga dynasty was replaced by the Pahlavi dynasty. As we all know, the latter is a short-lived regime full of favor for modernization and western secular policies. Since the first King Reza Khan ascended the throne in 1926, Iran began to promote rapid urbanization and industrialization, speeding up the import of European and American cars.

In 1963, Mohamed Reza, the second king of the Pahlavi dynasty, carried out the "White Revolution". Many European and American car factories, such as Fiat, Leland, Mazda, General Motors and American Motor Company, moved to Iran to set up West Asia car factories.

At the same time, Iran has set up many large car companies of its own, such as Iran National (Iran's largest car company, the predecessor of IKCO Holdero), SAIPA (Iran's second largest car manufacturer), Pars Khodro (Iran's third largest car manufacturer), Moratab Industrial Manufacturing Company (Iran's earliest car sales and production company), Iran Kaveh (Iran's important commercial vehicle company) and Zamyad Co. Wait a minute.

It is said that Morattab, which specializes in the SUV line, began producing a cloned Iranian Land Rover a year before the White Revolution was fully implemented.

The first car to take the localization route is the Peikang brand car listed by Iran National in 1967, and it is also the first generation of national miraculous car in Iran. At one point, it produced more than 100000 vehicles a year and launched six versions: deluxe version, pickup version, standard version, GT version, taxi version and automatic shift version, comparable to China's Santana, Fukang and Xiali in the 1980-200s.

Even today, in Iran, where there is no scrappage system for used cars, many cities can still see the old "Peikang" vintage cars.

Of course, this car is not Iran's own patent, not even "reverse development", but belongs to the British Rootes Group at that time. The latter handed over the production license and corresponding parts for its Arrow car to Iran National, but there was a quota of 6000 cars a year. Of course, if Iran really obediently built only 6000 cars a year, "Peikang" would not have become the first generation of national miraculous cars in Iran.

In the same year, Pars Khodro got a license from the American car company's famous classic walker to start manufacturing in Iran under the new names Aria and Shahin, and SAIPA followed suit by introducing the famous Dyane production line from Citroen the following year.

While the Pahlavi dynasty is comparable to the honeymoon in Europe and the United States, the local car industry has lived a wonderful period of Roman aristocracy. Of course, both overseas and local car factories produced mainstream European and American brands at that time.

How good were Iran and the West at that time?

In 1972, Pars Khodro changed its name directly to Iran General Motors and had production licenses for several cars: two Opel, a Buick, a Cadillac and a Chevrolet star. SAIPA and Iran National cling to the French and Japanese thighs, introducing Renault, Peugeot, Nissan, Mazda and other brands since 1975.

The quiet years ended abruptly with the exile of the Pahlavi family in Egypt in 1979.

Throughout the 1980s, Iran's auto industry fell into a deep sleep for 10 years. What has the new government done against the auto industry in the past 10 years?

I didn't do anything, but had several warm and pleasant small discussions. Let's put it simply, that is, how can cars be produced in our country? Should the whole country only produce a single model or more blossoms? Or simply flatten the entire automobile manufacturing industry and import cars directly from abroad, saving money for the development of agriculture or other industrial fields.

The small discussion lasted for 10 years, and the final result-after all, so many car factories have spent a lot of money on so many assembly lines, what else can they do but build cars? In other words, if we really wipe out all the car factories in the country, what else can we do in place? Dig for oil or grow saffron?

Go ahead and do what you have to do.

As a result, the "Peikang" car was first launched and resumed work in 1989, and of course, everything about the replacement of the car model remains the same. The biggest change is that its owner, Iran National, has changed its name! It became Iran Khodro, which is now the largest car company in Iran, IKCO Holdero.

With the eldest brother IKCO starting, SAIPA and Pars Khodro also followed suit and began to restore the hottest production line 10 years ago.

Of course, a full 10-year gap has given rise to a unique "industrial custom" in the Iranian auto industry-innovation, but not much, basically staying in the part of slightly changing the appearance or logo.

So until the beginning of the 21st century, several local car factories are still tirelessly producing European and American classic cars from many years ago, either labeling their own logo, or using the brands and names of more than 30 years ago, even if some brands and products have become a complete history, anyway.

For example, the "Peikang" car mentioned earlier was not stopped production until 2004. And the copyright owner of this car, Rootes Motor Co., Ltd. It has long been eaten by Peugeot Citroen.

What's more, they don't dare to control it-remember that in 2014, Chinese media discovered that local Iranian carmakers actually assembled Peugeot 206 and 405 with parts of Chinese origin.

As early as 2012, Peugeot-Citroen Group (PSA) had no choice but to withdraw from the Iranian market and cut off all support for Iran except for an apology. IKCO, as the spokesman of Peugeot Iran, came to China without saying a word and opened the way to copycat until now.

Peugeot knew all about IKCO's 10-year tort, but turned a blind eye to it. Why? Because of the PSA at that time, and now STELLANTIS is always ready to return to the Iranian market, so the infringement of Iranian partners, but afraid of offending.

Large and small car dealers who have the same experience and the same train of thought as Peugeot.... There are a lot of them.

Rao has a 10-year window, and Iran is still a big car producer in West Asia and the Gulf region.

For example, in the 2000s, Iran's car assembly capacity reached more than 2 million a year, fully meeting the local demand for cars, not to mention a lot of exports. At that time, in addition to rejecting American brands in Iran, many brands from Germany, France, Japan and South Korea, such as Peugeot, Kia, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and so on, were guests of local car companies.

Especially the PSA mentioned earlier. Peugeot did not expect that she could never forget her kindness because she took an extra look at IKCO in the crowd.

This is going to say that the Peikang brand sedan has returned to the postpartum period.

It is said that in the 1990s, the British Rootes Group has long been eaten by PSA, so Peikang's parts are naturally to ask PSA, did not expect the latter really gave! Also buy one get one free to give IKCO "try" the Peugeot 405 assembly line and parts, IKCO a try that is a delight: 405 is much better than Peikang, the French do not deceive me.

Soon, in the early 2000s, Peugeot 405 and Peugeot 206, and a four-door car specifically aimed at the Iranian market with separate suitcases entered Iran one after another-in addition to the Peugeot logo, the 405 enjoyed the same honorable treatment as Peikang more than 30 years ago, taking the route of localization with Iranian characteristics. As a result, Samand, the second generation of Iranian national miraculous cars, was born until now.

Under the divine assistance of PSA, IKCO completely shut down Peikang in 2004. two years later, its annual production exceeded 550000 units, making it the largest carmaker in West Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. PSA sales have also skyrocketed in Iran, selling 467000 cars in 2010 and 458000 and 313000 respectively in the next two years.

The French never dreamed that their cars were welcomed on the streets in Iran, and their popularity was close to that of the mainland. The achievement of these small achievements is so easy that they just send a set of equipment to others without any extra capital intervention.

The 2000s was a high-profile moment for Iran's auto industry.

The local government not only stopped intervening in curbing car production, but also began to kill all imported cars. In the 1990s, in order to give the green light to domestic cars, the import tariff on local cars was as high as 300%, but it was not reduced until 2005. 100%.

Under such a powerful policy, the localization rate of cars and parts has been greatly improved.

In 2006, there were more than 30 auto factories, more than 400 auto parts companies and 230000 auto parts industry workers. In recent years, Iran's two largest local car companies have 100000 employees, and another 700000 people are engaged in automobile-related industries. The automobile industry is already the main driver of Iran's economy, second only to the energy sector.

Coupled with the inhumane low oil prices, highway tolls and parking fees, it is not too much of a burden for middle-class Iranians to buy and own cars. Tehran, the capital of Iran, for example, had more than 3 million private cars as early as 2005, compared with a population of 12 million-one for every four people.

It was also in those years that Iranian car brands in their high light years began to plan to go out to sea.

IKCO, for example, entered China to discuss joint ventures at the 2006 Beijing Auto Show, with the previously mentioned second-generation national god car "Iranian Mustang" and Iranian-made Peugeot 206. It has had serious talks with two independent brands, Youth Automobile (the one that makes the "water-hydrogen engine") and Chery, which went to Iran for proofing in 2002, to set up an Iranian-Chinese joint venture.

And then. There's no such thing as then.

Of course, IKCO successfully entered the Russian market a year later, but stayed for only three years because of the lack of competitiveness in style and price.

Yes, Iran's auto industry is said to be very strong, compared with other West Asia, Gulf and some African countries where there is no auto industry or even zero.

Especially since 2012, the United States and the European Union have followed suit, launching a round of higher and higher all-round sanctions. The industrial sector is completely blocked, from technology to spare parts, so that international carmakers, large and small, have given Iran all the support except goodbye. In terms of Iran's auto industry, it is beginning to stagnate and derail from the world average.

In the past two years, in order to make their products look less simple and old, Iranian car companies of all sizes can only face the old cars on hand and strive to achieve "although they have the age of Liu Xiaoqing, they also have the face of Liu Xiaoqing."

This has also greatly dampened the enthusiasm of young Iranians in car selection and car ownership. The streets are full of old Peikang, old 405, old Samand and old 206. overage cars for more than 25 years can be seen everywhere. Coupled with the fact that there is no local vehicle scrapping policy, 85% of the local cars still running on the road have reached or exceeded 15 years of life.

Although big Iranian manufacturers say the self-production rate is more than 80%, some key components still have to be imported. Such as airbags, engine cylinder-related pistons, cylinder heads, especially computer chips including control units and sensors.

This forces them, on the one hand, to cooperate with nearby countries such as India and Turkey in search of new suppliers, and on the other hand to start truly indigenous research and development projects-and even get people from the Ministry of Defense to contribute.

But it has achieved little success in any way. For a long time, Iran did not even touch 1 million of its annual car production.

Of course, there is a third way to find Brother Ah Zhong.

After all, the auto industries of both sides exchanged faults in 2000. But the result at that time was obvious-IKCO chose thousands and thousands of choices, and finally found a young car that also had no core technology. After the establishment of Shandong Youth Yike Automobile Co., Ltd., there was no later move, and in the end, they broke up and broke up.

Compared with IKCO's "adventure in China", Chery, which was the first to enter Iraq, made a steady and steady move: in 2004, Chery first sent its car to Iran in the form of CKD, and then signed an agreement with IKCO and a Canadian investment company to set up a very mature joint venture factory there.

After that, more than a dozen Chinese automobile manufacturers, including BYD, Changan, Dongfeng, Geely, and so on, also successfully entered Iraq to set up joint ventures to sell cars, such as IKCO and Dongfeng Motor, Haima Motor, SAIPA and brilliance, Changan Automobile, and so on.

The local prices of many Chinese brand new cars are generally 2 to 4 times higher than those in our country. Among them, the price of Ruihu 8p and Ruihu 7 is about 36 and 240000 yuan, the lowest price of Dongfeng SUV is about 270000 yuan, and that of BYD S6 is about 160000 yuan. The local "shanzhai" Peugeot 206 sells for about $10,000.

The price gap is obvious, and it still can't stop the enthusiasm of the Iranian middle class who want real new cars and new technology-yes, the purchasing power of Iran's local tycoons is very strong, and the local concept of conspicuous consumption is also deeply entrenched. At one point, Chinese brands accounted for more than 20% of the Iranian market. Among them, Chery is the fiercest, with a total sales of more than 300000 vehicles in Iraq, with a market share of about 6%. It was once the third largest car company after IKCO and SAIPA, crowding out the original third Pars Khodro.

Well, the above figures are for 2018. In the same year, Iran suddenly became the top destination for Chinese cars to go to sea, but only for one year.

In 2019, Chuanbao's new round of fancy sanctions and the attack of the COVID-19 epidemic not only put the entire Iranian economy in trouble, but also made Chinese car companies choose to suspend their business in Iran. In the first half of 2019, Chinese car exports to Iran were only 567, down 99.9% from the same period last year-until March 20121, when China and Iran formally signed a 25-year comprehensive cooperation agreement, many Chinese car companies returned to the Iranian market.

However, as of November 2022, Iran is not yet a major car exporter of China, and there is still a big gap between Iran and the top 10.

In order to stimulate consumption, but also to catch up with the new vents of global automobile development, Iran also made it clear in its sixth five-year Plan (2016-2021) that it would begin to replace ordinary fuel vehicles with green cars in order to alleviate the serious air pollution problem in the country.

In fact, as early as 2007, the government used "distribution" to force the sale of a batch of IKCO and SAIPA CNG dual-fuel cars: buying and selling 100 gasoline vehicles and 25 hybrids at the same time. But the CNG quality of IKCO and SAIPA is really not good, the emissions are on a par with fuel vehicles, and CNG dual-fuel gas stations are too rare, but there are a lot of car owners.

It has been implemented for half a year. There's no such thing as then.

More than a decade later, it was still led by IKCO that began to break through.

For example, the E-Atros, Iran's first electric bus launched in March last year, is expected to be used in Iran's civilian transport fleet in 2023. It has the highest capacity battery ever developed in Iran, with a battery power of 350 kilowatt hours and a range of 250 kilometers.

Then there is the Oxygen, an all-electric car launched in May last year by an Iranian company called KSJ Motors, which plans to produce 10, 000 vehicles a year by 2024. The tram, about the size of the Wuling Hongguang MINI EV, has a range of 220km-the first all-electric car in Iran. According to KSJ Motors executives, 80 per cent of the parts of the car have been made locally.

It is said that the appearance of the car excited a senior Senegalese diplomat who was watching at that time. After all, Senegal is also one of the few countries on earth that are friendly to Iran.

Iranian energy and engineering group MAPNA has built Iran's first charging station in Tehran and plans to build a second charging station in Mashhad, Iran's second largest city.

However, as of August 2022, the penetration of electric vehicles in Iran is still extremely low.

An international law firm pointed out: "without the use of foreign technology and investment, the prospect of mass production of electric vehicles in Iran is not optimistic." The government's wishful thinking and simple and brutal tariff relief measures may attract a lot of imported electric cars in the short term. But the price of the latter is certainly not low, which is bound to lead to a rise in local car prices. More importantly, Iran's local new energy vehicles are backward in technology, lack of local manufacturing capacity and backward infrastructure. Although some major cities in Iran are promoting the construction of charging stations, most of them are pilot projects. coupled with the relatively backward and old urban power grid, it is simply unable to support the huge charging demand. "

So, I wonder whether it is the drinking poison of the Russian automobile industry to quench the thirst or the bright willow of the Iranian automobile industry that Iranian automakers can successfully enter Russia again.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: autocarweekly (ID:autocarweekly)

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