Carmakers Test Market Trend in Shiraz Expo

The 16th Shiraz Auto Exhibition wrapped up on Friday where a large number of carmakers and importers attended with dozens of new cars and trucks.

Peugeot, Renault, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, Iran Khodro, SAIPA, Chery, Kerman Khodro, Karmania were among the top exhibitors.

Iran Khodro was one of the busiest booths. It showed its latest Peugeot 2008 along with the Peugeot 508, Dena Plus, Tondar Plus (Logan), Haima S7 and the facelifted Suzuki Vitara.

In addition, SAIPA displayed its original and joint venture products. The company unveiled two expensive JV vehicles with the PSA’s Citroen C4, and C6 with price tags of 1.4 billion rials ($37,350) and 2.2 billion rials ($58,700), respectively.

Other products showcased by the company were Saipa Quick, Sandero Stepway, Brilliance, Changan Benni hatchback, and the locally produced Kia Cerato.

The Quick’s presale is set to start within a month with the price ranging from 330-400 million rials ($8,800-10,000).

Kerman Motor, a local automaker and the official representative of China’s JAC, launched the presale of the new small JAC S3 crossover.

The S3, priced at 719 million rials ($19,200), is a small sports utility vehicle and known as the “little brother” of the already released JAC S5, which is assembled and sold by Kerman Motor.

Karmania, another carmaker and the official representative and production partner of China’s BYD also showed three new models, namely BYD S6, F3 New and BYD Song; the latter is produced by BYD in Iran.

Chinese carmaker Chery also displayed its latest and most expensive SUV the Tiggo7, the production of which commenced last week in Iran’s southern Arg-e-Jadid Special Economic Zone near Bam in Kerman Province. Priced at 1.29 billion rials ($34,400).

Setareh Iran, a distributor of Mercedes-Benz, revealed one of the luxurious vehicles taking the covers off the new E Class sedan.

The Mercedes E200 unveiled during the event, comes with a 2-liter, 183 horsepower engine, and is equipped with 9G Tronic gearbox. The car is priced at 6 billion rials ($160,000), while its price in the international market starts from $76,800.