Taiwan's Luxgen Motor Co. to Enter Iran

Luxgen Motor Company, a small Taiwan-headquartered car firm, is set to bring two models to Iran.

According to the automotive website Persian Khodro, the Iranian company Arman Motor Kavir has signed a representation deal with the Taiwanese business.

CEO of Arman Motor, Farzin Torkipor said the deal in “The first phase of the collaboration Luxgen cars will be imported.”

He went on to say that “The two companies are studying the possibility of joint local production. However no decision has been made yet.”

According to the company, Arman Motor is currently establishing sales and after-sales offices in six major cities, namely Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, Yazd, Tabriz and Mashhad.

The sales manager of the company, Aqil Mostafai, named the two models to be offered as Luxgen U6 compact crossover and S3 sedan.

Mostafai said that “The U6 will be offered with a price tag ranging between 1 to 1.5 billion rials ($26,000 to $40,000) and S3 will come at less than 1 billion rials ($26,000).”

Sales are expected to start before the end of the current fiscal in March 2018.

The latest U6, dubbed Luxgen U6 Eco Hyper comes with two engine choices; a 1.8L Eco Hyper and a 2.0L Eco Hyper, putting out 168hp and 190hp respectively.

Eco Hyper is Luxgen’s new name for their boosted engines, similar to Ford’s EcoBoost, GM’s Ecotec, Honda’s Earth Dreams, and Kia’s GDi engines.

The Luxgen S3 is a 5-seater subcompact sedan car produced by the Taiwanese car company. The S3 is the second sedan with a 1.6-liter gasoline engine giving 116 hp.

The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yulon Motor. It was founded in January 2009 and Luxgen vehicles have been manufactured in Hangzhou, China by Dongfeng Yulon since late-2010.

The Taiwanese firm entered the Russian market in 2013 with the introduction of the Luxgen 7 SUV. The cars were imported to Russia as part of a CKD deal with the Russian firm Derways.

Luxgen produced just over 40,000 vehicles in the previous year, down on its 2015 figures of 60,315 vehicles.

Several Chinese firms are now firmly settled in the Iranian market, with some producing independently of the main car firms like SAIPA and Iran Khodro.

Chery created its first joint venture more than a decade ago in Iran, while others like Lifan, JAC, Haima, Changan and Brilliance have opted to work with major car assemblers like Kerman Khodro, IKCO and SAIPA.