Middle east’s biggest auto maker, Iran Khodro (IKCO) has unveiled their second self-developed car which is the Iran’s third after IKCO’s Samand and Saipa’s Miniature. The car is an economy sedan called Runna and you get the impression that it’s another Chinese crap at first glance! But they say it’s 100% Iranian, yea right!

Well they say it, but it takes no genius to notice that it’s a facelifted Peugeot 206 sedan! You can see that the doors and the roof line are copied from the Peugeot intact, they’ve only changed the door handles! IKCO claims that the platform of Peugeot 206 sedan is intellectually theirs, and they are kinda right because they developed it all the way, but at the end of the day the car is a full blooded Peugeot underneath.

So despite being very big, IKCO still got a long way to go in order to become a proper car maker. The question is though, in today’s economy where companies are merging and cooperating to lower the cost of making new models, why the Iranians insist on making ‘domestic-made cars’? And the funny thing is none of their national cars are original, so what’s the point?!?!

Anyways, the Runna… The name sounds like Runner in slang term, but actually in Persian language, Runna means ‘ something which goes well’ you can interpret it like ‘a versatile driver’ ! Runna should go well of course, as mentioned it’s a 206 underneath. It also get the same engine range as the 206. Not the hot 180 hp one though, the biggest will be the 1.6 liter 110 hp. But it also get the CNG-base 1.7 liter engine which is also domestic-developed! They treat their cars like that Uranium thing, they wanna do everything themselves at all costs! The trimming is what you expect from an economy saloon car. You can consider the Dacia Logan as a benchmark, the Runna classifies in the same category.

The IKCO Runna will launch in the first quarter of 2010, with production volume of 150000 units per year, 25 percent of which will be exported to foreign markets.

Iran Khodro Runna in video :