Little-known Canada firm in strategic car deal with Chery

Canadian company Solitac Inc has engineered an international coup in the automobile market by brokering a deal with China's Chery Automobile. Solitac will join hands with Chery Automobile and Iran Khodro, Iran's biggest car maker, to set up a $370-million plant in Babol in northern Iran. The deal is considered remarkable as Solitac is a very small company with a staff of just five people in its Toronto office.

The deal is said to have come through after Solitac approached Chery about making cars in Iran. The agreement came about in just three months. As per the deal, Chery would own 30 per cent of the Iranian plant, Khodro 49 per cent, and Solitac 21 per cent, said a report.

News reports say that Solitac has a totally unheard of profile and that callers to the company's Toronto number go to the personal voice mail of its president Hossein Bavafa. Solitac has been planning to bring Chery to Iran for a while now. The decision is believed to have been made following the realisation by Chery that there is a gap in the Iranian car market at the low end, which is dominated by a South Korean version of the Ford Fiesta.

The Canadian company has said that while the Fiesta version sells for about $8,000, Chery's four-door QQ6 microcar would be made available for just about $6,000. The company plans to sell more than 200,000 vehicles a year.

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