Hubristic Carmakers Now Need to Worry

Production of 25 locally-made cars has been announced unlawful by the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran. The agency’s deputy director has rejected the poor quality vehicles as substandard and says, “The models do not meet Iran’s mandatory automotive quality standards.”

Peyman Pirayesh says, “Carmakers are required to acquire Type Approval certificates for all the vehicles they sell in Iran as of Dec. 22,” Tasnim News Agency reported.

Type Approval certificates are legal documents that acknowledge a product’s full compliance with the relevant standards and regulations.

“According to tests conducted by ISIRI, 25 locally-made cars have failed to get the certificates and their production lines will be shut down,” he warned.

Furthermore, local carmakers from now on need to apply for Conformity of Production certificates from the agency. CoP is a means of verifying the company’s ability to produce a series of products that exactly match the specification, performance and marking requirements outlined in the type-approval documentation.

The models singled out by ISIRI include some versions of SAIPA’s infamous Pride and Ario (Zotye Z300), Iran Khodro’s Peugeot 405 with XUM engine, Bahman Group’s Besturn B50F and several Chinese-derived cars assembled by local carmakers Modiran Vehicle Manufacturing Co. and Kerman Motor.

The hubristic SAIPA sells several ‘versions’ of Pride, the cheapest car available in the saturated local market. Production of 131, 132 and 141 versions has been barred. First models of Pride rolled out of SAIPA assembly lines in 1993 and for years were of high quality because the majority of parts were made and/or imported from South Korea.

Similarly, IKCO offers different types of Peugeot 405 which are equipped with a wide range of engines. Production of the oldest version of this model equipped with XUM engine has been banned.

Pirayesh says from Dec. 22 the Traffic Police has stopped issuing license plates for the 25 models. “However, in order to uphold consumers’ rights, cars which were sold before the announced date and have not received license plates yet will be registered.”

SAIPA rushed to release a statement in response to the ISIRI warning, a statement which was dismissed as preposterous by industry observers. The company claimed it had obtained “production permits” for the poor quality cars from the Ministry of Industries. It was as if managers at the country’s second largest car company cannot understand the simple difference between a ‘production permit’ and a ‘type approval certificate’.

Pirayesh made his point clear in a statement and said ISIRI will not budge and the law must be enforced.

Unlike SAIPA’s sanctimonious response, MVM’s sales director said, “We have already halted the production of the (low quality) models.” IKCO and Bahman Group followed suit and accepted the criticism saying they will stop production of cars that do meet the ISIRI criteria.

Most vehicles produced by local companies suffer from low quality and major producers IKCO and SAIPA have often been criticized by the people, industry observers and informed minds over flouting automotive standards and disregarding safety rules.

Last year, Iran Standard and Quality Inspection Company, a private firm which conducts quality tests at the behest of Ministry of Industries censured SAIPA as “the worst carmaker in Iran in terms of quality”.

Earlier this week, Sodeif Badri, an MP said, “The profit margins of substandard vehicles that contribute terribly to air pollution are excessively high.” Disregarding the human cost of the lucrative business, “local carmakers are reluctant to stop production of such models,” he rued.

The auto sector is the second largest industry in Iran after oil and gas. Based on data released by the Ministry of Industries, during the first eight months of the current fiscal (March 20-Nov.21), the sector registered 16.6% year-on-year growth. While carmakers and officialdom take turns in basking in the news about the relatively high growth rates, there is no end in sight to the production of substandard cars.