TEHRAN- Iran’s industry minister Abbas Aliabadi says car output in the country will reach 1.7 million units in the current calendar year which ends on March 20, 2025.

Aliabadi said on Monday that Iranian automotive companies had produced a total of 1.335 million cars in the calendar year to March 2024.

He said the steady rise in domestic car manufacturing has allowed Iran to move up to 16th from 18th in two years in the global ranking of countries based on the number of cars produced annually.

The minister said Iran will become the 15th largest car producer in the world if production targets are met this year.

He said that the number of jobs in the Iranian car manufacturing sector has reached 0.9 million, adding that the sector is currently responsible for 12% of the economic added value in the country.

Iran has relied on increased domestic manufacturing of cars instead of imports to meet a growing demand in the country amid sanctions that have caused a change in import priorities.

However, last year, authorities began to relax some of the restrictions imposed on car imports since 2020 in an effort to ease soaring car prices in the market.

The rise in car output has also enabled domestic carmakers to diversify their models and to speed up their electrification plans.

Aliabadi said electrification will be the ultimate solution to Iran’s growing gasoline use problem which he said has exceeded 120 million liters per day.

He said that some 3,000 new charging points for electric cars will be available across Iran by the end of current calendar year.

Iran's car output reached 1.188 million units in 2023 and took 16th place in the world car production, the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA) reported.

The International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (known as OICA) announced that car production in Iran in 2023 reached 1,188 cars which has grown by 12 percent compared to the previous year.

Car manufacturing in Iran is the third most active industry in the country, accounting for 10 percent of GDP and four percent of the workforce after the oil and gas industry.

China took the first place in this list with 30.160 million cars, followed by the United States with 10.611 million cars in the second place and Japan in the third place. 

India, South Korea, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Thailand, Canada, France, Turkey, the Czech Republic, and Indonesia were in the next places before Iran.

Slovakia, the UK, Italy, Malaysia, and Russia were placed after Iran.