TEHRAN - The International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (known as OICA), in its latest annual report, has ranked Iran as the world’s 16th largest automaker in 2022, IRNA reported.

According to the OICA report, Iran’s position among the world’s top automakers has improved by three places in 2022 compared to the previous year making the country stand above industrial countries like the UK, Russia, and the Czech Republic. The Islamic Republic was ranked 19th in the OICA list of the world’s top automakers in 2021.

Based on the mentioned report, Iranian automakers managed to manufacture 1,064,298 vehicles in 2022 to register a 19-percent growth compared to the previous year.

Based on the OICA data, in 2022, more than 85 million cars were produced worldwide, indicating a six percent growth compared to 2021.

According to the data released by the Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade, car manufacturing in Iran increased by 25 percent during the first eleven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2022-February 19, 2023), as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

Based on the ministry’s data, over 1.126 million vehicles were manufactured in the 11-month period of this year.

Officials from the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry have repeatedly emphasized that car production will reach 1.6 million vehicles in the current year, however, the production this year is almost 30 percent behind the projected schedule.

As reported, the ministry’s auto manufacturing target for the next Iranian year 1402 (begins on March 21) is 1.8 million vehicles.

EF/MA