TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened on Sunday what is being dubbed as the Middle East’s biggest car plant set up by Iranian state-run automobile company Saipa, the official IRNA news agency reported.
IRNA said the plant, "biggest" in the Middle East and located in the central city of Kashan, would manufacture 150,000 vehicles annually.
The facility, built at a cost of around $350 million, would on full production offer direct employment to 4,000 people and launch a slew of locally designed sedans and small cars, called the Tiba (Deer).
Tiba, marketed as entirely domestically built, was unveiled by Ahmadinejad on Sunday and is priced between $8,000 to $9,000, mainly targeting the lower middle-class buyers.
"This is the first Iranian vehicle with Iranian characteristics as it is designed and manufactured by Iranians," the president was quoted as saying on the state-run television website.
"Tiba is the symbol of our confidence in ourselves … The Iranian nation has shown that despite sanctions and pressures from enemies, we have resisted and have progressed."
Ahmadinejad told the gathering at the inaugural ceremony that Iranian car manufacturers must increase the performance of locally made vehicles.
"The quality of our cars should be such that if an Iranian wants to buy a vehicle, he must prefer home-made ones," Ahmadinejad said.
Iran is the largest automobile manufacturer in the Middle East with more than 1.4 million vehicles produced last year.
In 2009, Saipa was the leading car producer in Iran manufacturing 54 percent of the total vehicles produced. State-run Iran Khodro produced the rest, according to official figures.
Both companies have technical tie-ups with leading French and South Korean automobile manufacturers such as Peugeot, Renault and KIA.
Saipa has tie-ups with KIA and Renault for its Pride and Logan range of cars, while Iran Khodro collaborates with Peugeot for several models, including Samand which uses the Peugeot engine.
Iran has banned importing vehicles which compete with these locally-made models, which have to be paid for in cash, but it allows luxury vehicles to come in after paying a hefty 90 percent customs duty.
Iran’s automobile industry is the second largest employer in the country after the oil sector. It directly employs around 500,000 people, as well as creating jobs in connected industries.
