The Paykan is the first Iranian made car produced by Iran Khodro between 1967 and 2005. The car was very popular in Iran from its introduction until its discontinuation. It is often colloquially referred as the Iranian chariot. The Paykan was a Hillman Hunter built under licence, but had some unique body work and locally-developed variants (most notably, the pickup, which used a different body shell from the one sold elsewhere).
The design was introduced to Iran by Mahmoud Khayami, co-founder and, by then, owner of the Iran Khodro (formerly called “Iran National”) company and factory, who accurately predicted that Iran was in need of a simple “no-frills” motorcar within the price range of ordinary people. In 1967, Rootes began exporting Hillman Hunters to Iran Khodro in “complete knock down” (CKD) kit form, for assembly in Iran. By the mid-1970s, full-scale manufacturing of the car (minus the engine) had started in Iran.
