Volkswagen grooms Skoda for Iran market
Germany’s Volkswagen is grooming its Skoda brand for the Iranian market of 80 million people who bought 1.1 million cars last year.
"Iran is a very interesting market with great opportunities," VW brand R&D chief Heinz-Jakob Neusser has said.
VW will conclude an assessment of the country's auto market by the end of the year, Reuters quoted him as saying at the Frankfurt auto show.
Neusser said it is still too early to say which product VW could use to go in with “but of course we see the potential".
Reuters quoted a company source as saying that VW was considering a move into Iran with the mass-market Skoda and Seat brands.
Volkswagen is hit by a drop in demand in China and Brazil which together account for almost 40% of its global sales, and Iran offers a new market which the car manufacturer seeks to tap.
Czech division Skoda is similarly looking at the prospects for entering Iran, its R&D chief Frank Welsch said.
"If the conditions develop right, this will be a market where we can fit in quite well with our offerings," Welsch said.
Volkswagen’s last venture in Iran involved its production of the Gol compact with Iran’s Kerman Khodro before withdrawing under US pressures.
VW officials accompanied German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel in a July visit to Iran along with representatives of of Daimler, Siemens, Linde, BASF and GIZ.
Iran Khodro Managing Director Hashem Yekke-Zare said then his company and Mercedes, owned by Daimler, “will sign a deal soon” for production of luxury cars and commercial vehicles.
Mercedes-Benz, he said, planned to buy 30% of shares in the Iranian Diesel Engine Manufacturing (IDEM) based in Tabriz.
Another German automaker, BMW, has said it was monitoring the situation and planned to enter the Iranian market in the “longer term”.
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