After the July 14 nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers, one of the issues that has been heavily discussed in the Iranian media is the country’s auto industry.

In order to understand the importance of the automobile industry for the Iranian economy and why there are extensive and heated discussions about it, some important facts need to be borne in mind. Iran is the biggest car producer in the Middle East. Before the economic sanctions were imposed, it was the 11th biggest car producer in the world. The automotive sector is the country’s second-largest industry in Iran after oil. Crucially, it employs more than 700,000 factory workers.

Amin Azad, an Iranian journalist who closely follows Iran’s automobile industry, told Al-Monitor, “The economic sanctions were a big setback for Iran’s auto industry, especially at a time when the auto industry was ready for a big jump.”

Azad emphasized that Western sanctions did not only halt this industry's progress, but hit output and prices: “Production decreased because of the sanctions while the price of cars increased radically, about 300%, because of the same sanctions. Output dropped from 1.5 million cars per year to less than 700,000. More importantly, the quality of Iranian-made cars dropped as well.”