SAIPA Gaining Ground Against Rival in Iran's Auto Market

Iran Khodro and Chinese car assemblers are losing ground to their main rival SAIPA, according to newly released data.

Donya-e-Eqtesad, the sister newspaper of Financial Tribune, released the latest auto market report for all passenger vehicles sold in the domestic market during the first 11 months of the current Iranian year that ends on March 20.

The report says IKCO’s share in the market has dropped 4% while SAIPA has grown 3.5%  compared to same period last year.

Private auto manufacturers, like MVM, Kerman Motor and Bahman Motor — which are mostly producing Chinese and South Korean models in collaboration with the parent companies — also registered a 1.6% decline and now have a 7.4% market share.

According to the newspaper report, the two semi state-owned auto manufacturers, IKCO, and SAIPA had a collective share of 87.4%.

During the period IKCO had a 49.4% share – down   4% year-on-year compared to its last year’s 53.5% share.

SAIPA was able to increase its share in the market by 3.5% and grabbed 37.9% of the saturated local car market.

 Sales of Imported Cars

The report said the share of imported cars in the auto market rose 1.6%. New models and attractive sales schemes and good after sales services have enabled importers to take a 5.18% share in the auto market.

More than $2.3 billion worth of vehicles and auto parts were imported in the eleven months.

Data says 61,077 units were imported during the period. The estimated value of the imported vehicles was put at $1.6 billion.