TEHRAN - Three major Iranian carmakers, namely Iran Khodro Company (IKCO), SAIPA Group, and Pars Khodro, manufactured 501,635 vehicles during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22), the data released by Codal website showed.

According to the data, the production by the mentioned companies has risen 1.1 percent compared to the previous year’s same seven months in which the output stood at 496,095.

During the said seven months, IKCO manufactured 242,276 vehicles, which was 2.8 percent less than the output in the same time span of the previous year.

During this period, this industrial group was able to produce 159,061 vehicles in the Peugeot group, 30,794 vehicles in the Samand group, 29,197 Dena vehicles, 16,908 Rana vehicles, 3,245 Haima vehicles, and 2,968 Tara vehicles.

SAIPA manufactured 192,628 vehicles in the mentioned period. Production by this automaker rose 2.2 percent in comparison to the previous year’s same time span in which the output stood at 188,490.

Pars Khodro also manufactured 66,731 vehicles in the period under review, 14.5 percent more than the output in the first seven months of the past year.

Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Seyyed Reza Fatemi Amin has said that his ministry has a two-year plan for the auto industry based on which this industry will undergo serious changes and improve significantly.

“We must strengthen competition, improve management and economic mechanisms, and increase production in the auto industry in order to succeed in our plans,” Fatemi Amin said.

"Our plan is to produce 1.6 million vehicles next year (begins in March 2022), which will increase to three million units in [the Iranian calendar year] 1404 (begins in March 2025), and 30 percent of the production, equivalent to about one million units, should be sent to export markets," he added.

Iran’s major carmakers had manufactured 900,714 vehicles in the previous year (ended on March 20), which was 4.3 percent more than the figure of its preceding year.

According to Codal data, during the past year, IKCO manufactured 480,338 vehicles, which was 21.9 percent more than the output in its preceding year, which was 393,812 vehicles.

SAIPA manufactured 317,321 vehicles, with a 12.6-percent fall from 363,379 vehicles manufactured in 1398. And Pars Khodro manufactured 103,055 vehicles in the past year, showing a 2.8-percent drop from the output of its previous year, which was 106,072 vehicles.

Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry’s programs for the current Iranian calendar year show that the manufacturing of 1.2 million cars has been put on the agenda.

According to the Industry Ministry data, since Iranian automakers had produced 984,200 such vehicles in the previous calendar year, the country’s car output is planned to increase by over 21.9 percent in the current year.

MA/MA