Since March, the value of the rial has plummeted to unprecedented lows with most Iranians investing their savings in foreign currencies or goods like cars leading to a sharp spike in demand and prices.
IKCO’s sales and marketing deputy, Mostafa Khankarami, says in order to address the excessive demand and calm down the markets, IKCO put 274,000 cars on offer through various sales and presale plans, IKCO Press reported.
Khankarami says, “Furthermore, so as to curb activities of profiteering dealers, some restrictions have been introduced on the sale of IKCO cars, including allowing each national citizen to only purchase a single car using his ID card for a limited span of time.”
According to Financial Tribune, he further notes that from now on, IKCO provides the market with cars solely through online sales, so as to provide customers with equal opportunities. Also, block sales and the signing of direct contracts with dealers are banned.
The ID prerequisite for purchasing vehicles is hoped to make the process stricter and prevent dealerships from hoarding cars and selling them at exorbitantly higher prices on the free market.
Furthermore, during recent weeks, Iranian car buyers have faced delayed deliveries that have made many anxious whether the company would be able to deliver the presold cars.
Khankarami says due to excessive volatility in the forex market and scarcity of raw materials many local parts makers have not been able to fulfill IKCO orders, an obstacle which has bottlenecked production.
According to him, establishing a stable production situation in the near future will help accelerate the delivery of vehicles. “With the production back on track, new sales plans will also be introduced.”
In the last fiscal that ended in March, preorders for 350,000 units were handled by IKCO.