Samand Soren sedan, an advanced product of Iran's major auto producer, Iran Khodro (IKCO) is to hit the market in the next Iranian calendar year (starting March 21, 2007).

Samand gets a new facelift under the name of Soren. The car is equipped with the world's latest technologies in the field including an electronic warning system, air bag and a host of other safety features, advanced safety belts with pretensioner devices and telescopic steering wheels. The safety equipments installed in Samand Soren are expected to reduce lethal collision injuries by up to 25 percent.

Global Positioning System (GPS), multimedia system, front seat air bag, full automatic seats, automatic transmission and automatic ventilation are among some of the optional systems that could be used in the car.

By the end of this year, Iran Khodro is expected to produce 250 units of the passenger car in its pilot production stage and some 12,000 in the next year for domestic markets. However, the company announced it is planning to export 10,000 units in the coming year.

The sedan also enjoys European ECE94 safety (crash) standard.



Iran Khodro Company, also known as IKCO, is the leading Iranian automaker with headquarters in Tehran.^[3] The company's original name was Iran National. IKCO was founded in 1962 and it produced 688,000 passenger cars in 2009.^[4] IKCO manufactures vehicles including sedans, trucks, minibuses and buses.^[5]



Size and production
The company has become the largest vehicle manufacturer in the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa.^[7] In Iran, it is the largest vehicle manufacturing company, having an average share of 65 percent of domestic vehicle production.^[8]
In 1997, IKCO broke its own production record by producing 111,111 units of various passenger cars and vans. By 2006 Iran Khodro was producing 550,000 vehicles (for the Iranian year 1384, starting on 21 March 2006).
The opening of the country’s largest car assembly plant in Khorassan in July 2008 is expected to increase capacity with the ability to turn out 100,000 vehicles per annum by late 2009. However, it will not necessarily increase production.
Iran Khodro, the largest car manufacturer in the Middle East, plans to increase its production to 730,000 vehicles by 2011 from around 680,000 in 2010


Certifications
Iran Khodro has qualified for ISO 9001 from RW-TUV, Germany, as well as many other health, safety, and environment certificates including ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.^[6] The company has also obtained TÜV, TSE, GOST and some other important standard certification for its different productions.


For more than three decades, Iran Khodro produced the Paykan, a car developed from the Rootes Group's Rootes Arrow range, best known as the Hillman Hunter. Paykan saloon car production was discontinued in 2005, almost thirty years after the end of Arrow production (latterly as the Chrysler Hunter) in Britain. A pick-up version is still in production.^[10]

Vintage Advert for Paykan



The Iranian-designed IKCO Samand, replaces the dated Paykan as Iran's "national ****, and features an Iranian designed hybrid dual-fuel engine in its Soren variant.^[11]
The firm has a long-term relationship with European and Asian manufacturers including PSA Peugeot Citroën, manufacturing and assembling a number of models under license from these firms. In 2009, Peugeot 206, Peugeot Pars, Peugeot 405, Peugeot Roa, and Samand sedans were IKCO's export-bound cars sent to Azerbaijan, Iraq, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Syria and Afghanistan.^[12]
Renault Pars Company is in charge of the engineering, quality control, parts supply, logistics, managing sales policies as well as marketing and customer services for Renault products in Iran and IKCO is one of its main shareholders that produces Tondar for the domestic market. Renault Pars is a joint venture, 51 percent of which belongs to Renault of France. Forty-nine percent of Renault Pars' shares is jointly held by Iran's Industrial Development and Renovation Organization, IKCO and Saipa. The company was established in 2003.^[13]
IKCO also manufactures trucks, buses and E-Class passenger cars under license from Mercedes-Benz. In a joint-venture with Daimler AG, Iran Khodro is soon to start production of sophisticated 900-class Mercedes-Benz engines; Daimler states that Iranian-made engines will be exported to Germany.<sup>[14][15]

The company won the annual national prize for export activities in years 2006, 2007. Russia, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Egypt, Algeria and Bulgaria are among the most important target market for the group. Since Iran Khodro group new movement through international markets in year 2004 the company has exported more than 150,000 units of cars in different classes and models to other countries mainly in Middle East and CIS region.
Export opportunities are restricted to relatively low volumes with $60 million worth of cars exported in 2007.[16] By this Iran Khodro has ranked as 24th company among 100 top companies in Islamic world in year 2008. The Company has exported about 35,000 cars in year 2009. Iran Khodro is currently exporting its productions to almost 40 countries all around the world. The company plans to increase its annual exports to more than 600,000 cars by 2016.[5]
ISACO Kish (IKCO after Sales Services and Spare Parts Export Co) is one of Iran's best exporters according to IDRO.[17]
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