[caption id="attachment_50053" align="alignright" width="159"] Iran Khodro Industrial Group (IKCO) CEO and President, Hashem Yekeh-Zareh[/caption]

TEHRAN (ISNA)- Iran Khodro Industrial Group (IKCO) has planned on maximizing the production of fuel efficient engines and diversifying its fuel portfolio with the purpose of environmental preservation.

"Producing fuel efficient, turbocharger and hybrid engines are some of the environmental preservation programs that IKCO has targeted," said IKCO CEO and President, Hashem Yekeh-Zareh.

"Considering vehicle-related pollutions, global carmakers' studies show that vehicles used by customers are responsible for more than 80% of the environmental issues and the rest is due to the production process," said Yekeh-Zareh, adding, "this is why IKCO is determined to focus on upgrading its vehicles emission standards and improving its naturally aspirated engines."

Yekeh-Zareh continued that Iran Khodro Industrial Group had a comprehensive view regarding environmental issues and hopes the measures that had been taken could lead to the realization of IKCO's mission in providing a cleaner air and greener environment.

He said measures taken by the company had been after improving design process, creating fuel portfolio, upgrading emission test labs and cooperating with scientific centers to carry out environmental researches.

"All IKCO cars meet Euro IV standard while car production process has been upgraded to meet this standard as well," declared Hashem Yekeh-Zareh and added, "by doing so, fuel consumption has decreased by 5 to 7 percent and our cars' emissions has dropped by 50 percent."

According to the CEO, IKCO, on a daily basis, manufactures more than 1200 sets of TU3, TU5 and EF7 engines with the average fuel consumption of 6 to 7 liters per 100 kilometer. The amount is supposed to increase to 1500 sets by the end of this year.

The company has started production of 1.2 and 1.4-liter fuel efficient engines, studying development of turbocharger engines and it is supposed to introduce new IKCO brand cars enjoying new platforms and fuel efficient engines by 2016.

IKCO has also started the pre-production of Soren equipped with diesel engine. The engine covers Euro V standard and the sedan is supposed to hit the market next year.

By ISNA