Iran’s industry minister Abbas Aliabadi says car output in the country will reach 1.7 million units in the current calendar year which ends on March 20, 2025.

According to The Iran Project, Aliabadi said on Monday that Iranian automotive companies had produced a total of 1.335 million cars in the calendar year to March 2024.

He said the steady rise in domestic car manufacturing has allowed Iran to move up to 16th from 18th in two years in the global ranking of countries based on the number of cars produced annually.

The minister said Iran will become the 15th largest car producer in the world if production targets are met this year.

He said that the number of jobs in the Iranian car manufacturing sector has reached 0.9 million, adding that the sector is currently responsible for 12% of the economic added value in the country.

Iran has relied on increased domestic manufacturing of cars instead of imports to meet a growing demand in the country amid sanctions that have caused a change in import priorities.

However, last year, authorities began to relax some of the restrictions imposed on car imports since 2020 in an effort to ease soaring car prices in the market.

The rise in car output has also enabled domestic carmakers to diversify their models and to speed up their electrification plans.

Aliabadi said electrification will be the ultimate solution to Iran’s growing gasoline use problem which he said has exceeded 120 million liters per day.

He said that some 3,000 new charging points for electric cars will be available across Iran by the end of current calendar year.