French auto giant Renault has announced a major increase of 111 percent in sales of cars to Iran in September.

Renault says that it sold 5,500 cars at the Iranian market over the period. It said the figure marked a significant increase compared to the same period last year when sales stood at 2,600 cars.

The company’s sales to Iran from January to August were 23,730 cars. The figure was lower by a meager 6 percent from the sales of 25,400 cars over the same period last year.

Renault’s overall sales to Iran in 2014 were 36,300 cars which were lower than 2013 by 9 percent.

The company has announced that its Logan brand - which is called L-90 in the Iranian market – is currently its most popular product in Iran.

Renault was forced in July 2013 to halt completely knocked down (CKD) shipments to Iran when the US government extended economic sanctions against Iran to the automobile sector.

However, it announced last June that it is looking into the possibility of resuming activities in Iran as speculations grew that sanctions against Iran would be eventually lifted.

The company emphasized that it is willing to resume cooperation with Iran’s automakers Iran Khodro and Pars Khodro over the production of cars through the CKD scheme.

After brighter prospects for the removal of anti-Iran sanctions emerged in light of the nuclear breakthrough between Iran and the P5+1 in July, another French auto giant Peugeot said it is ready to re-establish commercial ties with Iran.

Iran was Peugeot's second biggest market by volume, accounting for about 13% of the French company’s annual sales before sanctions were extended against Iran in 2012.

Apart from French majors, other European giants like Germany’s Volkswagen and Italy’s Fiat have also expressed interest in investing in Iran once the sanctions are lifted – what officials in Tehran say could occur in the first half of 2016.