What Will Be the Fate of Mercedes Benz in Iran?

Khodrocar – Mercedes Benz is a well-known brand for Iranians and it a symbol of German luxury car. For many years, the vehicles of this company have been imported and even assembled in Iran.

"Setareh Iran” is the official dealer of this company in Iran.

In the year 2002, Iran’s police department started using "E240” and "C240” as police cars and in the year 2007, Iran Khodro Co. started the assembly of E class "W211” in Iran with the cooperation of Daimler Company.

Throughout these years, Mercedes Benz imported its new products for its customers and lovers in Iran, which mainly included C, E and S class.

Last week, the new tariffs for imported vehicles has been announced and according to that, the import of vehicles with over 40 thousand dollars of values is banned. Considering that most of Mercedes Benz’s worth more than 40 thousand vehicles, major volume of imports of the company's products, including C, E and S class will be stopped. The only models under 40 thousand dollars, which have the chance to be imported to Iran are "CLA”, "GLA”, base models of "E class” and "Smart”.

On the other hand, recently Mercedes Benz and Iran Khodro inked the draft of a contract. If the contract finalizes, some models of the German company will be produced in Iran in the future.

But the main question is that whether this limitation in vehicle imports will affect this joint venture?

Hassan Karimi Sanjari, automotive industry expert, told Khodrocar regarding the issue: "These limitations have both positive and negative effects.”

He continued: "The negative effect is that some segment can’t be imported to Iran anymore which is not good but it will not make financial losses for Mercedes Benz, because it has a little share of Iran’s imported vehicles market.”

Sanjari mentioned the positive effect of the new tariffs: "With these limitations, Setareh Iran and Iran’s automotive industry will have the chance to produce the cars of this company inside the country, like Turkey and many other countries.”

The automotive industry expert emphasized: "The policy of the Ministry for limiting the vehicle imports, is in order to make the foreign countries to invest in Iran’s market and this will be a great chance for both Iranian car makers and Mercedes Benz.”

By this way, we can hope that in the near future maybe we will be able to see domestically produced Mercedes Benzes in the Roads of Iran.