socialbites.ca has established that Best Motors LLC, the official distributor of the Iranian automobile brand SAIPA in Russia, which announced the launch of this brand on the Russian market in the spring of 2023, is in the process of liquidation. As Alexander Stepanov, general director of Best Motors, told the publication, he and his partners decided to abandon the import of SAIPA cars to Russia due to changes in the economic situation in the country.
“The economic situation has changed somewhat. At the time, this brand was interesting in terms of pricing and everything else. Then it became uninteresting, economically unprofitable, that’s all.”
– Stepanov explained.
According to him, Best Motors realized that they would not be able to sell SAIPA cars at the initially planned price.
Best Motors in March this year announced In June, deliveries to Russia of the first batch of SAIPA Saina and Shahin sedans, as well as Quik hatchbacks, their prices at the start of sales were supposed to be 1-1.7 million rubles.
company in April published Specifications and equipment of the machines on the website. However, sales of Iranian cars never started.
and the Russian SAIPA website stopped working.
“The prices of all cars have increased significantly due to certain conditions, from the dollar exchange rate to the recycling fee. The price of the Iranian car should be 20-30% lower than the Chinese car, said Alexander Stepanov, head of Best Motors, in a conversation with socialbites.ca.
Experts had no doubt
Independent automotive industry consultant Sergei Burgazliev says SAIPA is initially unlikely to play any role in the Russian market because its products are direct competitors to state-backed AvtoVAZ.
“They may try to sell something here in test mode, but the point is that in terms of price, SAIPA vehicles are direct competitors of Lada. A good solution for the Iranians would have been to agree politically on some kind of support for their exports from Russia, but this did not happen.” says Burgazliev in an interview with socialbites.ca.
According to him, it also made sense for the management of the Iranian automobile manufacturer to first evaluate the potential of our market, which sells at least 1.5-2 thousand cars here annually. However, the expert adds that in order to gain a foothold in the Russian market, significant investments must be made in the development of the dealer network and marketing.
“There’s a feeling that local automakers were happy SAIPA wasn’t coming here, and the Iranians realized big investments were needed to build a network and decided it wasn’t worth the expense.”
– Burgazliev concluded his words.
Officially, Iranian cars should compete with Lada Vesta, but their prices are higher, given our high taxes and duties, and it is not clear why such cars are needed in Russia, Igor Morzharetto, partner of the Autostat analytical agency, doubts.
“We were promised a lot, but I looked at the sales results and since the beginning of the year almost 100 Iranian Khodro cars have been sold in Russia and SAIPA has never appeared. We don’t know these cars. It’s unclear what will happen to their services and how they will handle exposure to reagents in the winter.
“In Russia, Iranian cars, as they say, are tired of waiting.”
— Morzharetto stated in a conversation with socialbites.ca.
Chinese automakers no longer have cars as cheap as Lada and Iranian brands. He added that the latter may be of interest to buyers in terms of options that are unavailable to AvtoVAZ due to sanctions (automatic transmission, ABS, ESP, airbags, etc.).
Founded in Belarus
The Belarusian company Lucky Care also planned to supply SAIPA to the republic. While the company is hopeful of promoting the Iranian brand, it complains that the Vehicle Type Approval (VTA) certification of the vehicle is taking an unusually long time.
“The process of acquiring OTTS was delayed; we did not plan for the cars to remain at the testing site for six months,” Lucky Care general director Sergei Vachinsky told socialbites.ca.
According to him, certification has been postponed until 2024. Independent automotive industry consultant Sergei Burgazliev believes that SAIPA threatens AvtoVAZ sales with its exit.
“According to me
“At the highest political level, a decision was made that there was probably no need to create such competition.”
– Burgazliev notes in a conversation with socialbites.ca.
However, Vachinsky has no doubt that the certification documents will be completed soon and the first batch of cars will arrive in Belarus. The company even expects local assembly; however, this will require a request from dealers for the relevant SAIPA supply volumes.