History of Automotive Industry

Turkish Automotive Industry is a subject wondered by everybody, but still full of secrets. Our country tries to take permanent steps in this respect every year. Let us now look into the developments in our country throughout the history.

First Steps in Automotive

Very first automobile manufacturing enterprise in Turkey was attempted by Ford in 1929. However, due to the economic crisis back then, the factory faced closure before it got so active. Once the crisis was over, the brand Jeep entered the Turkish market, including the agriculture, in 1954 with a number of various vehicles. Manufacturing factory was founded in Tuzla and Turkish Willys Overland started to manufacture military type jeeps and vans as well as Büssing trucks. In 1955, it started to produce commercial vans. Between 1958 and 1961, the very first Turkish car named “Nobel 200” was manufactured. In the meantime, Otosan was established in partnership with Ford Motor Company and Koc Group. Thanks to these investments, they have contributed greatly to the production of automobiles. After many developments, and investments, a fully and entirely national car called “Devrim” was manufactured in 1961at Eskisehir State Railway factory with the directives of the President Cemal Gursel. However, due to insufficient investment and lack of demand, mass production could not be started. Between 1966 and 1982, the first significant manufacturing was achieved with the automobile brand “Anadol”. In those years, a total of 87 thousand Anadol cars were manufactured. The establishment of Tofas, in 1968 and Oyak-Renault in 1969 has brought some dynamism to the Turkish automotive industry.

1968 – 1980 Period
In this period, Oyak group introduced the car named Renault 12 under the Renault licence which is a French brand. Same year, Tofaş started to manufacture Murat 124 models under the Fiat license. In this period, several companies such as Man, Karsan and BMC industries, were founded and started to operate in the Turkish industry capable of dealing with a number of components

1981 – 1990 period
It was in 1985 that Otosan produced Ford Taunus, and Oyak Renault produced Renault 9 model as their second models. Two years later, Renault 11, the very first hatchback car, was manufactured. The first diesel engine was used for the first time in the pickup model of Anadol. At the end of the period, a new model was obtained by changing the engine and body in Renault 12 and this new vehicle was named as Toros.

1991 – 2000 period
As in every period, the Renault brand expanded its operations and launched Renault 21, a top-of-the-line model, into the market. The competition in the Turkish automotive industry has increased, with the inclusion of domestic productions from Opel and Toyota. In 1996, Prof Dr. Hasan Yurdakul initiated the manufacturing of the car named “Maral” which was a classical vehicle, its production continued until today, but it is manufactured by hand only. Later, several other car makes were introduced into the Turkish automotive industry which kept growing ever since, and Honda started manufacturing the Civic model and Hyundai started the Accent Model.

2000 – 2010 period
There are several attempts by individual and companies in this period towards manufacturing sports cars. Anadol STC-16, the first sports car produced in Turkey, was designed by Eralp Noyan. Etox is the second sports car produced in Turkey. It is a car that Ertex Oto Dekorasyon company built in cooperation with Turkish engineers. There are two engine options; diesel and electric. The automobiles called Onuk Sazan and Onuk S-56 cars built by Yonca-Onuk Shipyards were also manufactured. However, these vehicles are still under prototyping stage

Source; https://www.elektrikport.com/universite/turk-otomotiv-sanayi/15081#ad-image-0