Iran Khodro Starts Haima S5 Assembly

Iran Khodro started assembly lines of the Chinese-derived SUV Haima S5 at a special ceremony held Tuesday at the firm’s subsidiary in the Khorasan region. The production site is located in Binalud, Khorasan Razavi Province, the company’s press release said. Haima S7, a face-lifted version of Suzuki Grand Vitara and Peugeot 405, are produced at the factory. The subsidiary’s chief, Bijan Zahedi, says the company plans to produce other SUVs in the coming years. He did not elaborate. He said 35,000 units of Haima S5 and S7 will be assembled at the Binalud plant in the next fiscal (starts in March). Haima S5 has a 1.5-liter turbo engine, CVT automatic gearbox and 161 hp. IKCO launched online presales of the model in September and all units were sold within the first few hours. The company took 370 million rials ($9,250) in down payment. The final price of the vehicle has not been announced.