It said its largest export market was Iraq, but did not say how many cars it sold to Iraqis. Its second best market was Syria, with a mere 2,481 cars sold there, and its third biggest market was Venezuela with only a token 1,873 cars sold.
Iran Khodro is once again the country’s largest automaker. It claimed 49.5 percent of the domestic market in 2010. It had briefly lost first place to Saipa over unfavorable publicity about dozens of one of its Peugeot models bursting spontaneously into flames.
Iran Khodro last week announced that it will soon begin to mass produce its newest design, the Runna, an economy car it unveiled a few months ago. It said the car would sell for the equivalent of about $14,000.
The firm said it would ramp up production of the Runna to 150,000 units a year with a quarter of that output slated for sales abroad. But its forecasts of past foreign sales have not materialized.
Meanwhile, the company said it was putting an emphasis on improving automotive quality, responding to the biggest complaint of Iranian shoppers. Many citizens complain that Iran Khodro hides behind heavy import duties on foreign cars to stick the Iranian public with inferior goods.
The import duty on cars is 90 percent. It was lowered more than a year ago, but Iran Khodro and other Iranian carmakers lobbied hard against the reduction. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi personally and publicly intervened to support high duties to protect Iranian manufacturers and push the car duty back to 90 percent.
Iran Khodro says quality is improving already. It announced that based on the number of parts replaced in after-sales service, car quality has already improved 43.2 percent.
