Ford Otosan, a joint venture of Türkiye’s conglomerate Koç Holding and the U.S. automotive giant Ford, opened Saturday its Yeniköy factory in northwestern Kocaeli with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following the redesigning and modernization process initiated with the support of authorities in 2021.
Ford Otosan chair of the Board and Koç Holding deputy chair of the board of directors Ali Koç stated that the renewed factory will strengthen their position as Europe’s leading electric commercial vehicle manufacturer, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.
"However, our dreams for the future go far beyond these. Our Yeniköy factory will serve these dreams," he said.
Highlighting that they continue to invest in Türkiye’s future, Koç said, "As we enter the second century of the republic, we are placing our Yeniköy factory, which we call ‘the factory of the future,’ into service by enlarging it approximately fourfold and further modernizing it."
"The first step of this great happiness was taken at the meeting we held on March 16, 2021, again in the presence of our president, this time hosted by you (Erdoğan), you encouraged us with the support and encouragement of our state and we took the first step there," Koç recalled.
"In such an uncertain period, we announced our strategic investment of 2 billion euros ($2.14 billion), calling it ‘our vision for the future.’ This figure is the largest investment in the Turkish automotive industry," he underscored.
"It is also an ambitious vision project whose impact will last at least 10 years. On that day, we said, ‘As Europe’s commercial vehicle production leader and Türkiye’s export champion, we will also lead the electrification transformation of the automotive industry,’" Koç noted.
The Kocaeli facility, located in the Gölcük district, is the largest commercial vehicle production hub for Ford in Europe.
Wishing the plant, which employs 3,500 people, to be beneficial, Erdoğan on the other hand, said: "This facility, which is a reflection of the engineering and production power of the world brand Ford, deserves the title of the factory of the future with its pioneering features. It stands out with its production of both internal combustion and electric vehicles."
Emphasizing the factory’s potential, Erdoğan further said it would host the production of the new generation Transit Custom, as well as the electric Transit and Volkswagen’s 1-ton commercial vehicle.
"I hope that the new version of Transit Custom, Europe’s bestselling van class vehicle, will be beneficial to its customers in our country and around the world."
"That we have elevated to the 13th place from the 15th place in production in five years shows that we are advancing toward the right direction," President Erdoğan said. "What is more, we have achieved this despite successive global crises. Last year, our automobile exports had a foreign trade surplus of over $9 million."
‘Growing interest in EVs’
"We, as Türkiye, are determined to preserve our production and export potential, which we have obtained by swiftly adopting the technological transformations in the automobile production market. We attach special importance to the investments that will give us a say in electric and hybrid vehicle production, which is growing exponentially. As is the case in the entire world, there is a growing interest in electric vehicles in Türkiye as well," Erdoğan noted.
Stressing that 14 million electric vehicles are expected to be sold this year across the world, President Erdoğan added: "Apparently, with the new actors breaking into the market along with the already-present ones, the competition in this area will get increasingly fiercer."
"With the interest triggered by the Togg hitting the road, we march on the path to having a rapidly developing electric vehicle market. Our aim is to make our country one of the world’s leading actors in electric vehicle and battery production."
Highlighting the development in the electric vehicle sector, whose sales boomed this year, increasing approximately ninefold in the first 10 months of 2023 when compared to last year, according to official data, Erdoğan said, "We, as a country that has already reached a production capacity of 70 gigabytes per hour in electric vehicle batteries, are determined to become the battery production hub of Europe in 2030, at the latest."