TEHRAN - The head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) said more than 12,000 brand-new passenger cars were imported into the customs campuses of the country since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20 to June 10, 2024).

Offering the latest report on the situation of import of passenger cars into the country, Mohammad Rezvanifar said a total of 12,704 passenger cars have so far been imported into the country’s customs this year.

He went on to say that 4,015 of the passenger cars have been cleared and imported into the customs offices of the country.

Rezvanifar put the value of the cars imported into the country at $88 million.

The deputy minister of economy added that 11,122 passenger cars, valued at $218 million, were imported into the country in the past Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2023, to March 19, 2024).

Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade lifted the ban on car imports in late May 2022.

The decision was made to reduce the imbalance between supply and demand and to improve the country’s economic conditions with regard to foreign currency revenues.

Iranian automakers currently produce about one million cars annually, while the domestic demand for automobiles is over 1.5 million, so since the domestic manufacturers are not able to meet the market’s demand the government decided to allow imports.

Iran's major carmakers produced more than 1.13 million passenger cars in the previous calendar year ending March 19, showing a six percent growth compared to the figure for the previous year, an industry official said.

Mehrdad Khosravi, director of the Automotive Industries Office of the Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade, said the production of pickup trucks also saw a 32 percent increase this year at 166,000 vehicles.

Over 40,000 commercial vehicles, including different kinds of vans, minibuses, buses, trucks, and trailers, have also been manufactured this year, which is about two percent more than last year's output in this sector, he added.

Khosravi pointed out that the private sector's share in the automotive industry was 23 percent of the total production with around 307,000 vehicles.

The production of motorcycles was also on an upward trajectory last year at over 600,000 motorcycles, the official said. That is an increase of about 28 percent compared to the previous year's output.

EF/