Iran’s motor vehicle manufacturing sector produced 25 percent less units in 2019, compared with the previous year, figures from the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers show.

Iran produced 821,000 vehicles, with private cars constituting the bulk of production at 770,000 units. This came on top of a 40 percent reduction in 2018, compared with 2017, before the United States reimposed crippling economic sanctions on the country.

Iran had produced 1.5 million vehicles in 2017, with several models based on part-kits from French manufacturers. Once U.S. sanctions came into effect in mid-2018, Iran’s European partners stopped all business, practically closing several production lines.

Iran still produces some of its own home-designed vehicles with help from Chinese manufacturers, but in overall in the last two years its production has almost halved.

Iran's GDP retreated by almost ten percent in 2019, as it lost almost 90 percent of its crude oil exports, with a loss of around $30 billion.

Vehicle production in the world dropped five percent last year to under 92 million units. Argentina, Serbia and Iran experienced the biggest reductions.

Iran has still not issued its own production full figures for 2019. But for eleven months of the year it reported a 14 percent drop in personal vehicle production and 50 percent drop in heavy vehicles, such as trucks and buses.