The first trial assembly of a Peugeot 206 sedan-based IKCO Runna was completed – from an SKD kit – at Iran Khodro Industrial Group’s plant in Iraq in the week beginning 19 May, the automaker announced.
IKCO deputy CEO of export and international affairs Ali Elmi said the Iraq plant could build 10 cars an hour, or up to 20,000 per shift per year.
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Elmi added the Iraq plant had ordered over 22,000 assembly kits to meet local demand.
He added: “”We have the capability and capacity to supply this demand, however the sanction-related obstacles make it a bit difficult to follow the required procedure.”
Of the international sanctions, he said: “Problems have cooled off a bit, while international operations still encounter some kind of limits and we are trying to work this out with our foreign partners [including PSA – ed] and the banks not on the sanction list.”
IKCO’s initial volume production aim for the Iraq factory is 1,500 units a month.
Elmi said: “The Runna, Samand and Soren are [scheduled] to be assembled in Iraq for [the local] market.” He added that each market has specific requirements and preferences and Iraq was no different.
The Runna can be supplied with engines meeting the Euro IV emission standard, ABS and two airbags but Elmi said Iraqi customers do not demand that level of specification which reduces the retail price and boosts the brand’s competitiveness. Further changes would be made to tailor specification to the Iraq market.
Elemi said: “Chinese carmakers are IKCO’s main competitors [in Iraq]… and this means we have no time to delay or we lose this market and we can’t [recover lost market share] easily.”
IKCO plans to supply 18,000 SKD cars to Iraq by the end of the Iranian year. It has has so far assembled 100 Peugeot cars in Iraq and the assembly kits for a first run of 100 Runna models have already been dispatched.
