Jaguar Land Rover Makes Foray Into Iran

Six months after rumors circulated on the possible entry of Indian-owned British-built Jaguar Land Rover to Iran, the company has confirmed it is coming with more than half a dozen new SUVs and sedans.

As part of a business event hosted by the trade section of the British Embassy in downtown Tehran last week, the company's local partner, Ravanro Khodro, had an official stand promoting their new soon-to-be imported vehicles.

For the Jaguar brands, Ravanro will push ahead with imports of the XE sedan, XF sedan, XJ sedan, crossover F-Pace as well as the convertible F-Type, its promotional brochure reads.

Meanwhile, for Land Rover-labeled vehicles, the local firm's brochure say it will import the Discovery Sport, New Discovery, Range Rover Evoque, the just-introduced Range Rover Velar and the Range Rover Sport.

Orders for the two brands are being taken now, with the company stating cars will start arriving in the next few months.

One point missing from the official literature of the event was the price of the several vehicles.

However, according to other cars imported to the country with 100% import tax, the Range Rover Sport, one of Land Rover's best-selling vehicles in the UK and Chinese markets, will cost in the neighborhood of 3 billion rials ($80,000) for the entry-level vehicle.

All the new Jaguars and Land Rovers will meet the new engine import restrictions of 2.5 liters as per the government restrictions.

Other vehicles of the brand, including the standard Range Rover, will not be coming with the first batch of vehicles as their engines exceed the 2.5 liter limit.

Ravanro Khodro is part of the GBG Group, more famous for its other brands of Golestan, Twinings teas. The company also has the import license for both Asan Motor (Hyundai) and Atlas Khodro (Kia), according to its website.

The Jaguar Land Rover distributor will take over the former Hyundai showroom on Tehran's Parkway junction, confirming previous reports that the company had acquired it from its sister company.

Sales of Jaguar and Land Rovers halted after the revolution in Iran in 1979 with only a handful of the originally imported vehicles remaining on the road.

Jaguar is not the first British luxury car to show renewed interest in the saturated Iranian market. In September 2015, Britain’s handmade luxury carmaker Lotus opened a showroom in northern Tehran.