Middle East’s biggest auto maker, Iran Khodro (IKCO), has unveiled their second self-developed car which is Iran’s third after IKCO’s Samand and Saipa’s Miniature. The car is an economy sedan called Runna and at first glance you might get the impression that it’s another piece of China crap. But they say it’s 100% Iranian, which is probably supposed to lower the expectations.

Well they say it’s wholly Iranian, but it takes no genius to notice that the car’s a facelifted Peugeot 206 sedan. You can see that in the doors and the roof line, copied straight from the Peugeot. But, to their credit, IKCO designers have changed the door handles! IKCO claims that the platform of Peugeot 206 sedan is intellectually theirs, and they are kind of right as they were the ones who came up with the idea in the first place. But at the end of the day, the car is a full blooded Peugeot underneath.

So in spite of its humongous size, IKCO has 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 are the Iranians insisting on making ‘domestic-made cars’? And the funny thing is none of their national cars are domestic anyway, so what’s the point?

Anyways, the Runna…

The name sounds like Runner when said by a black person, and it is sort of that, as in Persian Runna means ‘ something which goes well’. It can also be translated to something like ‘a versatile driver’. Runna should go well of course, since it’s a 206 underneath. It also gets the same engine range as the 206. Not the hot 180 hp one though, the biggest will be the 1.6 liter 110 hp. There is also the CNG-base 1.7 liter engine which is another one of IKCO’s domesticated units. They treat their cars like that Uranium thing, they want to do everything themselves at all costs. As for the trimming and stuff, they are what you expect from an economy sedan. You can consider Dacia Logan as a benchmark, as the Runna classifies in the same category.

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 :