Page 43 - IRANRptJul18

trashed by angry customers after taking 100%-deposits for cars that never arrived in the country.
Another report said that Kerman Motors, which sells JAC and Hyundai models, reportedly told customers that they were no longer eligible for Hyundai cars due to the continuing devaluation of the rial and instead offered a Chinese JAC SUV model. Customers reportedly stormed the showroom demanding their money back, citing weeks of delays in obtaining their vehicles. The company responded by offering IRR150mn in addition to the Chinese JAC.
South Korea’s Hyundai announced some weeks back that it was intending to leave the Iranian market due to US pressure. The company previously signed up to produce several low-cost Hyundai models in Iran.
French carmaker Renault intends to maintain a presence in Iran but may have to greatly downsize its operations to avoid the risk of penalties for breaching renewed US sanctions, its CEO Carlos Ghosn said on June 16 at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Paris, AFP reported. "We will not abandon it [the Iranian market], even if we have to downsize very strongly," he reportedly said.
The stance of Renault in the face of the US sanctions to be imposed following the Trump administration’s unilateral early May exit from the multilateral nuclear deal, contrasts with that of the PSA Group—the maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars, as well as up-market DS vehicles—which in early June said it was preparing to suspend its joint venture activities in the Islamic Republic.
In the previous era of heavy sanctions prior to the introduction of the nuclear deal in January 2016, Renault muted its relationship with Iran but did not entirely pull out of the country. That move served it well as Iranians maintained trust in its brands. However, the Peugeot and Citroen brands took a massive hit when PSA Peugeot Citroen (as the group was then named) completely withdrew from Iran.
"When the market reopens, the fact of having stayed will certainly give us an advantage," Ghosn also told the gathered shareholders. He added: "We have a future in Iran."
IKCO, PSA’s biggest partner in Iran, which produces a range of outmoded vehicles including the 30-year-old Peugeot 405, is the Iranian automaker likely to suffer the most from the group’s unhappy goodbye. Likewise, SAIPA Group, which signed a deal with Citroen only recently, is set to take a heavy blow. It has sold a great deal of Citroen C3 models in the country which it is yet to deliver. It remains to be seen whether the buyers will ever see their vehicles or will have to settle for a refund.
Iranian automakers are targeting the production of plug-in hybrid electric cars by the start of the next Persian calendar year in March 2019, an Iranian MP has said, according to a Young Journalists Club (YJC) report published on June 9. Iran has attempted to create electric-hybrids before but each effort was foiled by a lack of technology as well as sanctions hampering joint production with foreign firms.
"New technology-based companies in cooperation with local experts and top engineers are working to produce hybrid and electric cars," the MP, Javad Hosseini-Kia, told YJC. He added that the vehicles would be ready for mass production within the next year, but did not name which Iranian company would be behind the manufacturing.
Hosseini-Kia said that Iranian car producers, likely the country’s number one and number two, Iran Khodro and SAIPA, have been in discussions with parliament to push the project forward and find funding for the development. A key issue hampering the development of plug-in hybrids in Iran is a lack of
43 IRAN Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com