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Iranian automakers will produce more than 1.3 million cars next year, marking a 50 percent jump in production in the face of the illegal US sanctions, a deputy industry minister says.

​According to Press TV, on Tuesday, Iran’s Deputy Industry Minister Mohsen Salehinia apparently sought to assure that local manufacturers would not be given a short shrift this time if another opening with the West took place.

Iran’s “automakers will produce more than 1.3 million cars next year,” he told a meeting of the National Production Support Commission with manufacturers.

“The goal is to have a 50% jump in car production from the beginning of Day (December 21, 2020) to Tir (June 22, 2021) next year for six months,” he said.

Secretary of National Space and Advanced Transportation Administration Manuchehr Manteghi said at present, the price of domestically produced cars is more than 6,000 dollars, which can be reduced by better sourcing of local capabilities.

“If low-tech component manufacturers are assembled together, with the right investment, they can reduce their finished costs,” he said.

In his administration, Manteghi said, Iranian experts are currently re-engineering some cars in an effort to use domestic products such as steel.

“With regard to advanced parts, we will also move towards the use of domestic technologies and domestic production,” he added.

According to Saipa CEO Soleimani, each Iranian-made car uses up some $2,000 of foreign exchange, including $600 in imported raw materials which the country is trying to substitute with local products.

Iran Khodro (IKCO) and Saipa are the two largest local manufacturers, which have picked up the slack since France’s Peugeot and Renault exited the country along with other international companies in the wake of the illegal US sanctions imposed on Iran in 2018, creating a supply crunch which saw car prices vault to unprecedented highs.

As the fallout from the sudden exit of foreign companies began to roll in, the two car makers pooled up local manufacturers of parts to produce Iranian-made vehicles. The defense ministry joined in to manufacture hi-tech auto parts which Iran used to import.

According to a local auto maker, 154 major auto parts have been internally produced, saving the country some 400 million euros in foreign exchange.