BMW Iran Has Aspirations of 2,000 to 3,000 Sales per Month
Which Middle Eastern country got the better deal? Not long ago Iraq got its first new car dealership in decades, a Hyundai retail outlet right in the center of Baghdad. Neighboring Iran has just received its first dealership after about 10 years, and the automaker to chance investing in an unstable market is not Hyundai, but at the other end of the economic scale BMW.
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| BMW Iran is the first new car dealership in the country after about 10 years. (Photo: Shawn Pisio, Canadian Auto Press) |
"Following painstaking procedures, we obtained permits to import our cars, and a few have made it through customs," commented BMW Iran's Sean Arjmand to a Reuters reporter.
Not necessarily about to affect BMW's overall sales, a total of two midsize 5-Series models were successfully imported, selling for about E120,000, just less than three times German retail due to tariffs which start at 130 percent. Eight additional BMWs were still held up in customs in the southern port of Bandar Abbas, according to the Reuters report of August 26.
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| A total of two midsize 5-Series models were successfully imported, selling for about E120,000, just less than three times German retail. (Photo: Shawn Pisio, Canadian Auto Press) |
Obviously BMW hopes for many more exports than 10 cars. Reuters reported BMW has aspirations of selling between 2,000 to 3,000 cars per year in the future, a goal that would need less stringent customs procedures in order to be realized.
Arjmand added, "We have to go all the way first and the procedures must be clarified to us before we import more cars."
Prior to the BMW dealership opening, wealthy Iranians purchased cars outside of Iran and by so doing were hit with tariffs of approximately 200 percent.
Arjmand has visions of chaging the past, stating, "Our ultimate goal is to assemble BMWs in Iran, but we would like to take one step at a time."