Mohammad Reza Ahmadi, the designer of a sports car made in Afghanistan, said in a video message posted to social media, that due to financial problems, they have been forced to stop work on their vehicle.

Ahmadi did not say when they hoped to resume work but stated the main reason for suspending operations was the lack of investors.

He said: “We thought that something would happen very well and that we would be able to attract investors very quickly, make us proud and go towards production, solve our problems and help the country, but unfortunately, attracting investors is a time-consuming process.

“From the beginning of our work, the problem we had was the [lack of] capital, which we always had and this problem was not solved for five years.”

Ahmadi said “only one part of the solution is in their hands and the other part is in the hands of investors.”

He also said they went into debt to build the sports car.

“Debt is putting so much pressure [on us] that we have to stop working for a while and go back to our old jobs. We are mold makers and we make molds for the detergent and food industries so that we can pay the debt and no longer disappoint the creditors,” said Ahmadi.

According to him, he is hopeful that work will soon resume on the sports car.

This car named “Helmet” was displayed on the roads of Kabul a few months ago and gained much attention both in the country and abroad. The car was designed and developed by NTOP and took five years to build at a cost of $60,000.