Chevy Cars Banned From Iran After Supreme Leader Criticized US Imports

While Peugeot will start producing cars in Iran from late 2017 and Audi is considering a market entry, things have taken an awkward turn for Chevrolet.

The GM-owned brand has been banned from selling its vehicles in the Middle Eastern country, after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized the carmaker and asked government to support local car production, as Reuters reports.

“Even the Americans are not interested in buying such cars because of their weight and high fuel consumption. Why should we import the cars from a bankrupt American factory? This is very odd“, Khamenei said, according to his official website.

Following the Iranian leader’s criticism, an import deal of 200 Chevrolet cars, which should have come from South Korea, worth approximately $7 million, was cancelled.

“The person who has registered the car orders has been informed that their import is not allowed. The cars are not in the country yet and were only loaded to be shipped to Iran,” an unnamed official in the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade, was quoted saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Khamenei also condemned rich young people who are seen driving expensive vehicles on the streets of Iran’s capital, Tehran, stating that they were the result of identity crises and bad education.

Most international sanctions applied to the Islamic Republic were lifted in January, following a nuclear deal reached with the USA and other world powers, opening the market for the first time after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, prior to which US-made cars and trucks were appreciated in the country.

Note: Chevrolet Bolt pictured