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As Turkey’s largest automotive company, Ford Otosan has been one of the country’s export champions for the last 6 years. It’s a business that is continuing to grow, as outlined by Haydar Yenigün, General Manager, Ford Otosan during a round table meeting with members of the International Van of the Year jury in December at the company’s headquarters’ R&D Centre at Sancaktere.

Mr. Yenigün has seen the progress of the company first hand, having moved up from the factory floor to the most senior executive position over the years. Through constant investment, strategic management, innovative engineering and with high quality levels reached throughout every process, Ford Otosan has achieved much, with more to come.

“We are a publicly traded company with the equal representation of Ford Motor Company and Koç Holding, Turkey’s biggest holdings company. In fact, we are the commercial vehicle hub for Ford of Europe with an established capacity of 450,000 units, employing more than 13,000 people. In 2020, Ford Otosan recorded $7 billion in revenue among which $4.9 billion were generated from exports,” explained Haydar.

The relationship between Koç Holding and Ford dates back to 1928, and today is one of the longest running and most successful joint ventures in the global auto industry.

Ford Otosan’s Kocaeli facilities opened in 2001, and since 2004 has been Ford’s global lead plant for the production of successive generations of the Ford Transit Custom range and the Transit 2-tonne.

“Our business consists of four main areas. [Firstly] the Commercial Vehicle Hub, which is, first and foremost, based on more than a half-century of

experience and dynamic product development, to become the biggest commercial vehicle production centre in Europe. [Secondly], in addition to manufacturing the light and medium CVs, Ford Otosan’s R&D Centre is one of the largest in Europe with close to 1,500 engineers located on site. [Thirdly] we operate a National Sales Company for Ford in Turkey. Lastly, Ford Otosan’s heavy commercial vehicle brand Ford Trucks, makes up our full commercial vehicle line up produced, consisting of Transit, Custom and Courier.”

“Being part of a global network allows our team to adopt new industrial user cases, thereby bringing further significant financial and operational benefits by offering 60 years of design and production excellence, competitive products and value-added services, wide-spread sales and aftersales network. At Ford Trucks, we combine more than half a century of design, engineering, R&D, validation and production experience with expertise in market-specific product development, to engineer our own vehicles. We are one of the handful manufacturers to produce our vehicles from scratch. Currently, Ford Trucks operates in 45 countries across three continents, producing a range of vehicles including tractor-units, construction trucks and distribution trucks, weighing over 16 tonnes.”

“The Transit, Custom and Courier are produced in Kocaeli within two plants, Gölcük and Yeniköy, which are adjacent to each other. Today, we produce 85% of the Transit product line sold across Europe by Ford. Our Gölcük plant has joined the World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Lighthouse Network’ in 2019. [We are the] first in Turkey and first among Ford manufacturing sites [to achieve this],” he added proudly. “This was a great achievement for our team looking to enhance Ford Otosan’s digitalisation, which is our next step forward.”

Late last year Ford Otosan announced a €2 billion investment in its Kocaeli facilities to increase vehicle and battery pack production and to create more jobs.

“We started the electrification journey with the assembly of the Transit Custom PHEV. Then, we established Turkey’s first battery assembly line and became the country’s first and only integrated vehicle production plant. This was particularly critical for this path, as the new technology is much different than what we are used to do, which requires a different skillset and new capabilities. I am proud to say that our team has outgrown themselves and adapted to these requirements immediately.”

“Our electrification journey continues with E-Transit production, a project in which we have invested heavily and continue to do so. You won’t be able to see it today, but there is a lot of engineering and building going on at the sister site of Gölcük, where we will produce the next generation of 1-tonne vans. The next generation Ford Transit

Custom range, will include all-electric models which will advance Ford’s electrification strategy and commercial vehicle leadership in Europe and will be built by Ford Otosan in Turkey. On top of that, as part of the Ford Motor CompanyVolkswagen Commercial Vehicles strategic alliance, Volkswagen’s next-generation Transporter 1-tonne commercial vehicle will also be produced in Kocaeli. We feel very proud about these responsibilities as it is a great testament to the quality of our Ford components and to the craftsmanship and the capabilities of the workforce at Ford Otosan,” concluded Haydar.

Text: Jarlath Sweeney – editor@fleet.ie

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