One-third of vehicles plying Tehran’s roads failed to meet emission standards and pass technical inspection tests, during the first quarter of the current Iranian year (March 21-June 21).
Hossein Moqaddam, CEO of Tehran Vehicle Technical Inspection Bureau, said that in the three months, 465,598 vehicles visited the capital's technical inspection centers, of which 353,000 were under four years old and underwent their first technical check, ISNA reported.
"Thirty percent of the new vehicles, equal to 105,900 were rejected, 14% of which did not receive the certificate due to high emission, 9% for wheel alignment, 4% for shock absorber failure, 11% for brake system problems and 13% for appearance issues,” he added.
The official noted that during the period under review, 336,000 technical certificates have been issued, of which 263,519 were regular and 72,481 were premium.
The premium certificate has higher standards than those of the conventional technical inspection certificate. While under normal tests, vehicles’ emissions are monitored in a low-speed performance, the carbon monoxide emission of cars is assessed at 2,500 rpm for receiving the premium certificate.
Announcing that cars visiting the test centers have increased to 5,000 per day, the official said the test time has reduced to less than an hour after an online booking system was launched and inspection centers were increased.
According to the official, 12,000 visits during the first quarter was booked online, which is half the total online reservation system’s capacity.
Moqaddam noted that people can save more time by finding less crowded centers on the inspection bureau’s website.
Dangers and Measures
Vehicles that do not meet local emission and safety standards spew poison into the air, harm people’s health and damage the environment.
Tehran Municipality’s Transportation and Traffic Organization has estimated that air pollution in the capital costs $2.6 billion annually.
To curb the worsening problem, TM has devised several schemes to regulate vehicles plying the city’s roads.
In November 2018, the technical inspection certificate became mandatory for all two- and four-wheelers plying the capital’s streets.
The Air Pollution Reduction Scheme bars smog-inducing clunkers from entering the already clogged roads of the metropolis and those found in breach are fined.
As per latest scheme dubbed Air Pollution Control, based on which each vehicle can enter a "restricted zone" in central Tehran for a maximum of 20 days each season (three months), or 80 days a year for free.
Spread over 88.5 square kilometers in central Tehran, the zone is bounded by Imam Ali Expressway in the east, Navvab Expressway and Chamran Highway in the west, Besat Expressway in the south and Hemmat Expressway in the north.
As per APC, if motorists wish to enter the zone more than the number of times allowed without charge in the plan, they need to pay a toll fee.
Besides the two, the Traffic Scheme is being enforced in an area limited by Motahari Street (north), Shariati Street (east), Kargar (west) and Shoosh (south). Cars, except for public transportation vehicles, are barred from entering the area between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Private vehicles need to pay 550,000 rials ($2.2) to enter the zone.
These schemes have been implemented in the hope of easing Tehran’s air pollution. However, they cannot address the issue until a significant change is made in the quality of locally-produced vehicles.
Quality Improvement
Iran Standards and Quality Inspection Company has released its latest report on ranking locally-made cars, which indicate a slight improvement in vehicle quality during the Iranian month ending April 20.
The vehicles are ranked from one to a maximum of five stars based on their quality.
The report classifies the cars in five price ranges, from the cheapest costing 870 million rials ($3,515) to the most expensive costing around 10 billion rials ($40,400).
According to the ISQI ranking, a small city car Quick made by SAIPA has kept its four out of five stars in the ranking. The model costs 1.4 billion rials ($5,920) and is classed in the fourth price group.
The previous round of quality inspections had awarded five stars to the automatic Dena Plus Turbo made by the leading domestic automaker Iran Khodro (IKCO).
Four- and three-star categories were the largest groups, mainly featuring IKCO and SAIPA models.
Peugeot 405 model, made by IKCO and SAIPA’s Pride models are set to be phased out, because they suffer from several safety failures and never earned over two stars in the ISQI ranking.
The former is a large family car released by the French automaker Peugeot in July 1987, which continues to be manufactured under license outside France, as its production was discontinued in Europe in 1997.
SAIPA’s small city car, Pride, has been produced in Iran for decades.
The production of some versions of Pride was ceased in June 2020 because of its serious safety failures and quality issues. Soon, it was excluded from the quality ranking list.
The production of other versions is continuing, but the car remains distinguished by its ultra-low quality.
Pride was originally developed for Japanese and South Korean markets in the late 1980s. The car was widely sold in the United States as a Ford Festiva in the early 1990s. It entered the Iranian market in 1993 under license from Kia and has continued to be a cash cow for SAIPA.
Three years ago, the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran and Iran’s Automotive Policymaking Council set new automotive standards and gave a two-year ultimatum to automakers to comply.
The production of vehicles that cannot meet 83 automotive standards was expected to be halted by the end of 2018. SAIPA’s Pride topped the elimination list.
A recent study conducted on Iranian road accidents recorded over the past decade showed that the road killer was involved in one-third of the fatalities.
Road crashes claimed 206,049 lives in the 11 years ending March 2019, data from Iranian Legal Medicine Organization show.
Up to 34% of the figure, constituting 70,056 victims, have died in a Pride car.
