France’s Citroen has disclosed that the C3 hatchback is the first car it plans to produce in Iran, Asbe Bokhar reported on November 25.
PSA Group, which owns Citroen, has invested some €400mn in a joint venture called SAIPA-Citroen since mid-2016. The C3 will be the first of a series of Citroen vehicles that will go into production in Iran.
SAIPA director Fariborz Shahbaz said SAIPA-Citroen intends to produce 200,000 C3s per year, He added: “The production lines of the C3 are currently being installed and they will have a launch before next autumn.”
France’s Yann Martin, CEO of the SAIPA-Citroen JV, said that the production of the car should not be affected by US sanctions still in place against Tehran. He added: “We are not a political entity. We just want to do business in Iran.”
Martin said that 70% of the parts of the produced C3 would be locally sourced. Earlier in the week, Iranian media reported that SAIPA-Citroen had imported its first shipment of C3 parts.
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