Strange joke with the car market / How many cars can be imported?

According to Tejarat News, as shown by Iranian customs statistics, in 1998, only 1,300 vehicles were exported from Iran to nine countries. The dollar value of Iran’s exports this year was 5 million and 722 thousand dollars.

But why is car exports important in this plan? Because the important condition of the Guardian Council to liberalize the import of cars into the country was that no currency should be taken out of the country. In this case, the import of the car is done either through foreign currencies or the import in exchange for the export of the car and its parts.

But to which countries in the world does Iran export cars, and what is the amount of these exports that it can import foreign cars in exchange for the export of cars and their parts?

Imports of 800,000 cars a year!

But this number means how much and with what currency can the car be imported? According to the statistics of the Ministry of Silence, the amount of car production in the first seven months of this year was 560,000. This means that an average of 80,000 vehicles are produced every month and about 2,600 vehicles are produced every day.

Iran’s exports in 1998, however, were only 1,300 vehicles. In other words, the amount of Iranian car exports has been half of the production per day.

Iran’s foreign exchange earnings from car exports were only 5 million and 722 thousand dollars. The cheapest car in the world market is $ 7,000, and assuming that the amount of Iranian exports is constant in relation to this income, it can only import 800 cars! (Provided that no costs are spent on imports.)

But Minister Samat promised to increase exports and said that car exports in 1404 would reach one million units per year. This promise means a 770-fold increase in car exports.

Apart from whether Iran has the capacity to produce this number of cars or not, another question is which countries have been customers of Iranian cars so far and how much has been the export of Iranian cars to these countries?

Export of 500 cars to Iraq!

In 1998 and the year under review (before the Corona epidemic), Iraq was the first destination for Iranian car exports. We have exported 3 million and 122 thousand dollars to Iraq this year.
Next is Azerbaijan, where the amount of car exports to this country was one million and 159 thousand dollars. The value of car exports to Syria is not even one million dollars and is 981 thousand dollars.
The list also includes countries like Turkey with $ 7,000 and the United Arab Emirates with $ 4,600.
It was previously said that Tiba would cost around $ 7,000 in Iraq. On this account, Iraq was the first export destination for Iranian cars, buying less than 500 cars from Iran.
Of course, it was announced some time ago that Iraq has also stopped buying cars from Iran because it believes that Iranian cars do not meet the required standard!

Export a car to Turkey!

We also have more interesting numbers about Iranian car exports. For example, the export of Iranian cars to Turkey was only 7,000 dollars! This means that Iran has exported only one car to Turkey!
It is basically difficult to comment on the export of $ 4,000 to the United Arab Emirates!

Iran had not been able to capture the markets of the surrounding countries before, now these countries are announcing one by one that they will not buy from Iran Khodro. Including Iraq and Syria.

It was recently announced that Iran and Turkmenistan have a car export agreement. But according to the Statista Research Institute, only about 600 cars were sold in Turkmenistan in 2020, and in 2019, before Corona, only 5,000 cars were traded in Turkmenistan.

This means that even if Iran takes over the entire Turkmen market, it can export 5,000 cars to this country. Equivalent to two days of production of domestic automakers!

Is car import eliminated?

The problem is that the parliament and the Guardian Council have said that the only condition for importing cars is that no currency be taken out of the country. That means we have to export cars and car parts so that we can import foreign cars.

These cases show that Iran has not only failed to attract the export market, but has also lost part of its market. On the other hand, it is unlikely that many cars can be imported by exporting 500 units to Iraq and one unit to Turkey, or even conquering the small Turkmen market.