According to the Russian distributor of Saipa, Best Motors LLC, affordable prices start from 1 million rubles. An Iranian company and its Russian partner are considering the possibility of localizing the production of Saipa cars in St. Petersburg at one of the idle car plants.
Founded in the mid-60s of the last century, Saipa has French roots, it began its activities with the licensed production of Citroen cars, and today its model range consists of inexpensive models that combine outdated foreign platforms, Iranian design and imported components. The Iranian auto industry, which has been living under sanctions from Western countries for decades, wants to take advantage of the difficult geopolitical situation and will once again try to enter the Russian market — previous attempts were not particularly successful.
Saipa Shahin
Last summer, at the MIMS Automobility Moscow exhibition, we considered the Saipa Shahin compact sedan, but then there was still no specifics regarding the supply of this and other Iranian models to Russia. Now such specifics have appeared: the Best Motors company from St. Petersburg, registered in January of this year, became the distributor of Saipa in the Russian Federation and announced its intention to start selling three of its models on June 1.
Saipa Shahin
The contract between Best Motors and Saipa is designed for three years and 45,000 cars, this year Best Motors wants to sell at least 10,000 cars, TASS reports citing Alexander Stepanov, CEO of the Russian company. The first Saipa showroom will open in St. Petersburg, then during the year Best Motors plans to open 120 outlets in different regions of Russia. The first batch of 1,000 cars will be imported into our country under the parallel import mechanism in order to start selling as soon as possible and not wait for full certification. For the first time, Saipa will supply our country with three front-wheel drive models — Quik, Saina and Shahin.
Saipa Quik 1/3 Saipa Quik 2/3 Saipa Quik 3/3
Subcompact cross-hatchback Quik (4005 mm long) and sedan Saina (4215 mm long) are related models made on the basis of Kia Pride from the mid-80s of the last century. How these models are doing with passive safety, one can only guess, we reduce the design of the “Iranians” to resemble the first generation Suzuki SX4. The engine is a 1.5-liter naturally aspirated petrol (88 hp), gearboxes are either “mechanics” or “automatic” (CVT).
Saipa Saina 1/3 Saipa Saina 2/3 Saipa Saina 3/3
The already familiar Saipa Shahin compact sedan (4460 mm in length) is built on the platform of the first generation Toyota Yaris, it is equipped with a 1.5-liter gasoline turbo engine (112 hp) paired with « mechanics» or «automatic».
The aforementioned three models will cost in Russia in the range from 1 to 1.7 million rubles, the exact prices will be determined closer to the start of sales. At the end of the year, Best Motors expects to start selling other Saipa models, including the Atlas cross-hatchback (a more recent variation of Quik) and the commercial line — it makes no sense to talk about it in detail yet.
If Saipa cars take root in our market, Best Motors can localize their production in Russia — preliminary negotiations are already underway on the possible use of one of the idle sites in St. Petersburg, but representatives of Best Motors are not yet ready to provide details.