IKCO to Start Production of Peugeot 301

Iran Khodro has said it will ‘start test production’ of Peugeot 301 in the coming week.

According to the Persian-language newspaper Donya-e-Eqtesad, IKCO will launch mass production of the model in the coming fiscal that starts in March.

Company officials have been quoted as saying that 40% of the parts used in this model will be made in Iran and the vehicle will be priced at 600 million rials ($15,000). This is while the company is struggling to deliver on past promises.

A €400-million 50-50 joint venture deal was signed between IKCO and Groupe PSA’s Peugeot in June 2016 through which three models, namely Peugeot 208, 2008 and 301 are to be manufactured in Iran.

The first locally assembled Peugeot-IKCO vehicle was the Peugeot 2008. It is priced at 1.04 billion rials ($26,000) -- almost $9,000 over and above the price in international markets.

The Iranian company officially inaugurated production lines of Peugeot 2008 in May and soon after started presales. In a few days 16,000 units were on the waiting list. Car buyers gave 600 million rials ($15,000) in down payment.

IKCO has agreed to deliver the vehicles in one year. However, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Industries, so far, only four units of the car have been produced.

To meet the deadline and deliver the cars for which it has already received large amounts from the people, IKCO should assemble at least 2,000 units every month. Officials at IKCO claim 50 units of the ‘locally-produced’ 2008s have been delivered to customers.

Imported Peugeot 301 is available in the local market brought in by IKCO and sold for 950 million rials ($23,700). As soon as the news about possible ‘inauguration’ of the 301 production line made its way to the press, the price tag on the imported car plummeted. Currently, the vehicle does not fetch more than 830 million rials ($20,700).

Peugeot’s so-called ‘low-cost sedan’ was first released overseas in late 2012. The vehicle is currently produced in Vigo (Spain), Kaduna (Nigeria) and Wuhan in China. The car is available for $12,000 in the UAE.

The family sedan offered by IKCO comes with a 1.6 liter, 113-hp engine linked to a 6-speed automatic transmission. While it may not be the most powerful compact sedan, the car’s Euro6 engine is known for fuel efficiency.