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Our first day in Bandar Abbas was spent at the port waiting for our Mahindra SUVs on the INSTC Friendship Rally to clear customs – nothing to do except look at the Mack trucks thundering past us. At least three if not four decades old these Mack Trucks look beastly; if you see one in your rear view mirror you will pull over. Or wet your pants. These trucks are American so obviously came into Iran before the revolution and they’re still plying the roads, most looking worse for wear. And these aren’t small trucks either, in fact all the trucks are Semis. Along with these old Macks are equally old International trucks and Volvo N10s. And all look crazy. What was it about the seventies that they designed these angry looking trucks!
To give you an idea these trucks are from the same era as the Mercedes trucks that Tata Motors used to make. And there are also old Mercedes mini-busses. A generation (or two, don’t know, no Google in Iran to check!) older than our Force Traveller (that used to be the Tempo Traveller, and is basically an eighties Mercedes mini-bus), this used to be made in Iran judging by the Iran Khodro badging on them. Evidently they don’t throw anything away in Iran. Of course there are modern trucks on the road as well but for a developed country there are very many of these old trucks still in operation.
Khodro translates to car in Persian and Iran Khodro is the national automotive company, what Maruti was once upon a time in India. And back in the day Iran’s equivalent to our Ambassador and Padmini was the Paykan. A rather handsome four-door sedan with a rakish boot the car – an eighties design I’m assuming –it went out of production a decade ago (again assuming, no Google to cross-check) but you still see many of them plying the road in both sedan and pickup form. Even more ancient is the Zamyad pickup – a three decade old Nissan – that is mainly seen lumbering under the weight of watermelons piled to the sky.
Between Iran Khodro and Saipa they make (almost) everything that is made in Iran. The most popular car on the road – the Iranian equivalent of the Alto – is the Saipa 131 SE. This is a nineties Kia Pride, a small sedan from the era when Korean cars were dire, and you see both new(ish) and ancient examples on the road. Evidently this car has been in production for very long. Our local guide in Tehran took us around in his Saipa and I can tell you it’s quite a horrible car, costs 7000 US dollars (quite expensive for how basic it is!) and he says in three years it cost him another 7000 US dollars to maintain. A refresh on the Saipa, the 132, is still in production, still dire looking, but in the new car production stakes I think it has been surpassed by another Saipa car from their new joint venture with Renault – the Logan.
“Our local guide in Tehran took us around in his Saipa and I can tell you it’s quite a horrible car, costs 7000 US dollars (quite expensive for how basic it is!) and he says in three years it cost him another 7000 US dollars to maintain”
The Logan isn’t called the Logan, instead sporting Tondar 90 badges. And there’s a facelift (more like a bum lift because the nose is barely changed) with a fake diffuser and tail lamps extended into the boot (massive improvement over the dreary Logan) that is badged Pars Tondar 90. The latter is made in Iran by the Renault-Saipa joint venture. I’m unsure how the joint venture works because Renault is here in full force with their entire range from the Sandero hatchback to Duster to even the new Koleos and Talisman luxury sedan.
The French have close ties with the Iranians and it reflects in car manufacturing with Peugeot also very popular. The 405 sedan – from the eighties or early nineties – is the ‘big’ car and continues with a facelift as the Peugeot Pars with Peugeot having resumed their official car manufacturing tie-up after the lifting of the sanctions. To give you a benchmark this is somewhat like the first Mitsubishi Lancer that came to India.
The only popular hatch was the Peugeot 206 (such a beautiful car, even today) and Saipa also makes a bunch of (horrid looking) hatchbacks but sedans is where it is at. Iran Khodro is now called IKCO and they make a range of modern(ish) cars. The Iranians might have a fabulous sense of aesthetics but it doesn’t translate to their cars which are quite basic and not at all pleasing to the eye. The IKCO Samand is the locally made luxury car, the size of our Honda City, with a big(ish) 1.7-litre petrol engine and popular with the cops to. You do see some decent cop cars, we spotted a few W203 C-Class and even the W211 E-Class. I believe Mercedes used to make cars in Iran. Trucks for sure.
The Chinese are here in full force. Brilliance, Chery, FAW, Geely, JAC (whatever that is, haven’t heard of them before) all are here in Iran, especially in and around Tehran. There’s also a completely crap looking Matiz copy that I see a fair few of in Tehran. The Chinese don’t don’t make in Iran, these are all imports but apparently they’re quite competitively priced. Iran’s local car manufacturers better be careful of the Chinese!
So said the Indian ambassador over the dinner he hosted for us at India House in Tehran. There is a solid opportunity in Iran. The SUV craze has yet to hit Iran and that presents a great opportunity for the SUV manufacturer. Everywhere we went there was open curiosity and genuine interest in our Scorpios and XUVs and that’s not only because of the Mahindra Adventure livery and INSTC Friendship Rally stickers. There really is nothing like these Mahindra SUVs sold in Iran today, there are either the dreary locally built cars or expensive imports (I’m told import duties are up to 270 per cent depending on engine capacity and body type!).
“The SUV craze has yet to hit Iran and that presents a great opportunity for Mahindra”
The only challenge is there is no petrol engine in the Scorpio and Iran is a pure petrol country (for cars). But the XUV does have a petrol engine and that can be shoe-horned into the Scoprio. If Mahindra can set up a local assembly facility then this market will be ripe for the taking – the INSTC Friendship Rally will have laid a foundation for the Mahindra brand in Iran and that can be marketed in due course. And that’s Mahindra Adventure’s job, build the brand in virgin territories.
