SAIPA Tiba History

The Tiba (Persian for 'gazelle') was unveiled in December 2008 under the internal project name S81, originally called Miniatur. It marked a milestone for SAIPA as the company's first vehicle designed on a platform conceived entirely in Iran, with input from German engineering consultancy FEV on the 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine. A new assembly plant in Kashan opened in May 2010 with capacity for 150,000 vehicles per year, and commercial deliveries began in 2009.

The Tiba featured a 1,503 cc four-cylinder producing 87 hp at 5,200 rpm paired with a five-speed manual transmission, returning roughly 5.6 litres per 100 km on the highway. A five-door hatchback variant — marketed as the Tiba 2 — was added in 2013. SAIPA briefly exported the Tiba to Ukraine in 2012, one of the few times an Iranian-designed car reached a European-adjacent market.

Despite formal production ending in 2022, large inventories of unsold units kept the Tiba at the top of Iran's new-car sales charts in 2023 and 2024, underlining just how price-sensitive the domestic market remains. The Tiba platform lives on indirectly through the Saina sedan, which shares its X200 architecture.