Tehran - Production of the Peykan, Iran's oldest domestically manufactured car, officially ended on Sunday, with Minister of Industries and Mines Is'haq Jahangiri attending a ceremony held on the occasion.
The minister wrote a message and signed a commemorative plaque to be placed on the very last car produced on the IKCO assembly line, saying, "The Peykan was the chariot on which our auto industry arrived, and now it is time for it to go to the museum." The car was then delivered to the Museum and Permanent Exhibition of IKCO Products.
"Iran Khodro will continue producing with pride, and without the Paykan," Jahangiri said of Iran's largest state-owned vehicle manufacturer, Iran Khodro Industrial Group (IKCO).
With the termination of the production of the car after 40 years, the manufacturing company has undertaken to only produce the spare parts required for some two million Peykans currently plying the country's roads. The parts are to be produced for a period of ten years, according to a statement issued by IKCO on Sunday.
"Meanwhile, in a move to fill the gap resulting from the cessation of Peykan production, IKCO is planning to increase its production of the Peugeot RD, the Peugeot GLI, and other models", IKCO Managing Director Manuchehr Manteqi said on Sunday.
© Tehran Times 2005
