SAIPA Started Abolition of Car Lotteries With Shahin

EghtesadOnline: SAIPA Automotive Group has started the sale of Shahin from April 19, without holding a car lottery, in response to high public demand.

News ID: ۷۸۷۸۴۲

01 May 2022

Accordingly, the delivery time of this car is a maximum of 90 days and in case of a delay, as per the contract, a compensation equivalent to 36% of the annual profit (3% monthly) will be calculated on a daily basis.

Shahin can be considered the first positive step of SAIPA to repair its reputation after years of Pride production and is considered a turning point in the automaker’s history, the news portal of Donyaye Khodro reported.

Shahin was designed at a time when the Iranian car industry was facing tough US sanctions and problems related to supply chain and car manufacture.

This showed SAIPA's determination to produce a modern car with a completely different design. It intends to further incorporate changes and updates in Shahin and the Aria Crossover.

SAIPA's main efforts could be seen in Shahin that complies with safety standards, including airbag, crash testing and pedestrian collision standards, which have been obtained from a reputable European institution. In fact, it is the first Iranian car manufacturer to fully show the development and safety features of Shahin by publishing videos and results of Shahin crash and airbag tests.

Shahin uses a turbocharged M15GSI engine. The base version of this engine had previously been used on SAIPA X 200 platform products (Tiba, Saina and Quick), but to fit the Shahin’s weight of 1,250 kg, some parts have been replaced, modified and upgraded.

The car’s engine is also equipped with electric throttle, VVT system and Euro 5 emission standards that ensure lower fuel consumption and vibration with more acceleration and power.

Conditions for Elimination of Car Lotteries

Iran Khodro Company has announced that it will end the much-criticized car lotteries if the company’s two conditions are met.

“An increase in production and supply, and the elimination of command pricing are two important conditions for the company to eliminate car lotteries from the process of selling vehicles,” Babak Rahmani, spokesman of Iran Khodro Industrial Group, was also quoted as saying by the news portal of Car.ir.

“The annual demand of the Iranian car market is 1.2-1.5 million vehicles and IKCO plans to produce 750,000 units, including 25,000 heavy vehicles and 725,000 passenger cars,” he added.

The spokesman noted that the increase in supply is only reason for eliminating the lottery, which will take place gradually in the second half of the current fiscal year (started March 21).

Regarding the 400 million-rial increase in the price of bi-fuel Samand, he said, “For more than a year, bi-fuel Samand has not been produced or sold, and is only used for taxis, so the increase in its price is not subjected to any special rules.”

Rahmani implicitly acknowledged that the pricing of bi-fuel Samand solely rests on the whim and fancy of IKCO.

"In the concluding two months of last year, compared to the previous 10 months, we had a 17% increase in supply and more than 120,000 units were supplied, of which 68,000 vehicles were delivered to customers,” he said.

“Therefore, the increase in car prices has not been caused by a lack of supply and factors such as inflation expectations for the fiscal 2022-23. The price hike is due to foreign currency prices and the cancellation of imports of parts.”

This flies in the face of earlier official claims that the so-called national car Samand is wholly produced domestically.

Referring to the import of 13 Benz E200 passenger cars by a subsidiary of Iran Khodro six months ago, the IKCO spokesman said, “The company is the exclusive importer of Mercedes-Benz cars and the company’s shares [held by Iran] belong to Iran Khodro. The company’s orders were registered before the import ban was approved.”

“Before the sanctions, the dealership was under the supervision of Mercedes-Benz and 756 units were assembled in Iran, and we received this permission directly from Mercedes-Benz to produce Benz cars by Tejarat-e-Setareh Iran Company, but we could not continue this cooperation after the sanctions,” he said.

"The transfer of knowhow from Benz Company was only undertaken by Tejarat-e-Setareh Iran Company and currently, the company is applying to register a knowledge-based company with the Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology."

Rahmani said the import of cars helps car manufacturers, because experience has shown that domestic manufacturers produce more vehicles when there are car imports.