Iran Threatens To Bankrupt Peugeot

With sanctions piling up against Iran because of their nuclear ambitions, Iran is getting more and more isolated on the world stage. They need to assert their authority and let the world know they won’t be pushed around. And they may have found a way of doing it according to the Iranian Student’s News Agency (ISNA).

Autoevolution reports that the ISNA has put forward a story that’s quite bizarre. They claim that Peugeot’s Iranian subsidiary has received a few bankruptcy related threats from the Iranian government. The Iranians are threatening to stop the import of spare parts for cars. If that were to happen Peugeot Iran would have to declare bankruptcy, the Iranian government claimed. “If we decide, we can bring Peugeot company to bankruptcy. If we stop the importation of spare parts from Peugeot tomorrow, the company’s sales will drop by 2.5 billion dollars,” said Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Iran’s Vice President, “If we just raise our eyebrows, a part of the French auto industry will collapse”. Peugeot produces the 405 and 206 models in a joint venture with Iran Khodro.

Iran doesn’t report production data to OICA, but production by Iran Khodro is estimated at 600,000 units. Iran Khodro also has a joint venture with Renault and Mercedes. Curiously, these two companies remained unmentioned. If the Iran would stop importing parts, it would hurt Peugeot, but won’t bring it down. Iran also imports large amounts of parts from China. Even with China, there are problems. The world trades in U.S. dollars, and Iran increasingly has problems getting dollars and getting them out of the country – or so they say. Having no parts also has a small, but inconvenient side-effect: The car won’t drive. A small part of the French auto industry may collapse, along with a large part of the Iranian traffic.

This may needs a little more thought, Mr Rahimi. Until then, I’ll file this story until “WTF”, ok…?