Continued Rise in Car Prices; Saipa Says It Will Begin Selling Cars Without Lottery System
After months of debate over eliminating the car sales lottery system in Iran, Saipa automotive company announced that it intends for the first time in an “exceptional sales plan” to sell the Shaheen car without lottery restrictions.
According to reports, this plan will begin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 19, and will be active “until capacity is filled on the Saipa company website.” Possessing a driver’s license is required to register.
In the announcement of this “exceptional plan,” it is stated that the price of a white Shaheen car is 344 million and 580 thousand tomans, and the purchased vehicle will be delivered within 90 days.
Reza Fatemi Amin, the Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade, had previously announced that car sales through the lottery system would be eliminated from mid-2022, as according to him “car supply will match demand.”
Car sales through the lottery system has long been implemented as a solution to reduce inflation in the car market. However, this plan has not only failed to balance market prices, but prices have increased at a steeper rate.
This change in procedure is being implemented at a time when the method of selling the Saipa Shaheen last year prompted customer protests. As reported by ILNA in May 2021, a group of buyers gathered in front of the company to protest the failure to deliver on time as well as technical problems such as “fires and shutdowns” of the vehicle, and also the removal of some options and changes to the color of the requested car and replacement of the car’s recorder.
According to protesting customers, the initial 50 percent price of the Shaheen car was “80 million tomans” while the price of the remaining 50 percent was announced as “187 million tomans” and “many applicants were unable” to pay the remaining amount.
Based on the order of Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the 13th government, and the confirmation of the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade, car imports are to be liberalized starting in June, but as Mahdi Dadvar, secretary of the car importers association, says, “opponents of car imports have high power” and by raising the “issue of general policies of the system,” they will prevent the government from accepting this risk.
Dadvar previously claimed in an interview with the Donya-ye Eqtesad newspaper that liberalizing car imports would break prices in the market.
According to reports, car prices in Iran continue to rise, and the price of a Peugeot 111 has reached 199 million tomans.
Source: Voice of America
