Which Model Automobiles are Produced in Türkiye

Hello dear readers, we will talk about the automotive industry of Türkiye in this blog post today. Türkiye has a tremendous geopolitical location in terms of distribution of products to the world. Automotive factories were established by global automotive brands in Türkiye earlier in the 1960s. In this period, these production capacities and technologies changed rapidly day by day in Turkiye. I will try to explain the role of Türkiye in the automotive industry in the world with this data. When we check we can see 1.2 million passenger cars that were produced in Türkiye in 2021. Also, a total of 2 million vehicles were produced in Türkiye in 2021 according to the OSD foundation. Türkiye is 1st in commercial vehicle production in Europe. Türkiye is 4th in automotive production capacity in Europe also It is 13th in this area in the world. Türkiye has big potential and capacity in the automotive industry with big players such as Oyak-Renault, Tofaş-Fiat, Ford-Otosan, Hyundai-Assan, Toyota, and Togg. Actually, there was a Honda plant in Türkiye but they decided to retract their plants from Türkiye and United Kingdom in 2021, it was a strategy of Honda regarding their future goals. Türkiye has a competitive car market margin, generally, Turkish customers tend to buy C-segment Sedan, B-segment Hatchback automobiles, and also Crossover/SUV models earned popularity in Turkish customers nowadays. When we check automobiles that are produced in Türkiye, we can see these automobiles that are appropriate for this tendency. Also when we evaluate automobiles models which are sold in the first term in 2022 in Türkiye, the ranking is as follows 1-Fiat Egea(sedan), 2-Renault Clio(hatchback), 3-Toyota Corolla(sedan), 4-Dacia Duster, 5-Renault Megane(sedan). Generally, these automotive factories are located in the Marmara Region of Türkiye also there are a lot of sub-industry brands at the same time. The automotive industry is the most important industry for the economy of Türkiye and the Turkish people. Approximately 50.000 employees work in the key industry and 250.000 employees work in the sub-industry. According to OSD over 500.000 people are employed in the automotive industry in Türkiye. Türkiye had a goal to produce domestic Turkish cars and they had some attempts about this case but they did not arrive mass production stage in past. Devrim(Revolution) was the first car that was produced by Turkish engineers only in 135 days in Türkiye but only 4 pieces were produced and this model did not produce anymore because of political issues. This goal did not end for the Turkish people and they announced the Togg automobile brand which was established in 2018. The electric cars will be produced in five models (C-segment sedan, C-segment hatchback, C-segment MPV, C-segment SUV, and B-segment SUV) and the initial production rate will be 175.000 vehicles per annum. The Togg factory will open in Gemlik on 29 October 2022. Also, this day which is the republic day of Türkiye arranged especially.

Automobile Factories in Türkiye

Oyak-Renault Factory

The Oyak-Renault factory was established in Bursa in 1969. This factory can produce automobiles and automobile engines and there are 378.000 vehicles production capacity and 920.000 engine production capacity per annum. This company has 5.739 employees in the Bursa plant. Oyak-Renault company has these automobile models production such as Megane, Clio 5, and Clio 5 hybrid. Hakan Doğu is the General Manager of this factory.

Tofaş-Fiat Factory

TOFAŞ(Turkish Automobile Factory) was established in Bursa in 1968. This company has about 7.000 employees in the Bursa plant. This factory is one of the important factories for Fiat with a 1.000.000 m2 area of the factory. They produce Egea(sedan, hatchback, station wagon, and cross), Doblo, and Fiorino in the Bursa plant with 450.000 vehicles production capacity in this plant per annum. Egea is the latest model of the Tofaş factory and this model was improved by mostly Turkish engineers. Cengiz Eroldu is the General Manager of this factory.

Ford-Otosan Factory

Ford-Otosan is the valuest automotive company in Borsa Istanbul. They have over 12.500 employees with 3 different factories in Kocaeli(Gölcük, Yeniköy), and Eskişehir, also they have an RD center in Istanbul with 1.413 RD employees. Ford-Otosan was established in 1959 and they have 455.000 commercial automobiles, 70.000 engines and 140.000 power trains production capacity according to data in 2020. Ford-Otosan is the biggest commercial vehicle production center in Europe. Ford-Otosan produces Ford Transit, Tourneo/Transit Custom, Tourneo/Transit Courier, and Ford Trucks model commercial vehicles in these 3 different locations. Güven Özyurt is the General Manager of this factory.

Toyota Factory

Toyota was established in 1994 in Sakarya. They have over 5.000 employees in their plant with 280.000 production capacity per annum. They produce Corrolla and C-HR models in this factory to export them to over 150 countries in the world. This plant has the biggest production capacity among Toyota factories which are located in Europe. Erdoğan Şahin is the General Manager of this factory.

Hyundai-Assan Factory

Hyundai-Assan was established in 1994 in Alikahya, İzmit as a joint venture with the Hyundai brand from Korea and Kibar Holding from Türkiye. They have 2.550 employees in their plant with 230.000 production capacity per annum. They produce i10, i20, and Bayon models in the Türkiye factory. This factory has a 1.000.000 m2 area and this plant was the first plant that was established outside of Korea. Murat Berkel is the General Manager of this factory.

Togg Factory

Togg(Turkey’s Automobile Joint Venture Group Inc.) is a Turkish automotive company that was established in 2018 in Türkiye. They will produce electric vehicles and the Togg plant was constructed in Gemlik, Bursa. They planned 4.323 employees at the production plant and 175.000 electric vehicle production capacity per annum. They will start their mass production stage after the validation certifications stage. This brand was formed by 5 different local companies such as Anadolu Group(23%), Turkcell(23%), Zorlu Holding(23%), BMC(23%), and TOBB(8%). Togg vehicle design was formed by Pininfarina studio which is the most famous Italian design studio. They showed their vehicles at the CES2022 event in the USA and Turkish people have been waiting for this domestic automobile since 2019. They will produce C-segment SUV and C-segment Sedan first part of their products and also these production varieties will continue with C-segment Hatchback, B-segment SUV, and C-segment MPV. Mehmet Gürcan Karakaş is the General Manager of this automobile brand.

Actually, I prepared a blog post about this brand on my website in past, and if you want you can check it to arrive more information about this brand. It is name Overview of Togg Automotive Brand in Türkiye. I wanted to prepare this blog post because of the power of the Automotive industry in Türkiye. I think Türkiye has great potential and capacity in this area and it is a big player in the world of the automotive industry. I talked about companies that produce only passenger cars except for Ford-Otosan but Türkiye has different automotive companies such as Mercedes-Benz, MAN, Karsan, Temsa, Otokar, Anadolu-Isuzu, BMC, Tümosan, and others. Also, Türkiye has over 480 supplier automotive brands which have tier-one certificates. Since 2003, original equipment manufacturers invested over 16 billion USD in their operations in Türkiye. I hope this blog post could be useful for people who read it. I am happy to be part of this industry as an Automotive Engineer who lives in Bursa.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

Thomas Carlyle