Turkey has been the light commercial vehicle production center of Europe for more than 20 years. However, after the successive statements made by the brands, first Ford and now Fiat decided to shift their production centers to other countries for some of their models. Because the 5th generation electric Fiat Doblo, introduced this year, will no longer be produced by TOFAŞ.
TOFAŞ lost its 5th generation electric Fiat Doblo production to Spain!
TOFAŞ announced that it has come to the end of the road for the Fiat Doblo model, which it has been producing in its factories in Bursa for 23 years. In the KAP statement, it was reported that the production agreement of the current vehicle until the end of 2022 was extended until the end of 2023 for Turkey, North America, Canada, the Middle East and Africa.
So now ties with Europe have been severed. Because the 5th generation electric Doblo, which will be produced in Spain with the PSA infrastructure, will primarily be sold to EU countries. The model that will continue to be produced in Turkey for another 1.5 years is the 4th generation. Of course, the electric Doblo will also come to our country. But we’ll have to wait for the estimated year 2024.
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In addition, let us state that when it comes to our country, it will have lost all the advantages of domestic production. Even in the best conditions, there will be a serious increase in price due to additional taxes and logistics costs at customs.
But there is an important claim. The annual vehicle production capacity of TOFAŞ’s facilities in Bursa is around 450 thousand. We can say that roughly half of this is passenger cars and the other half is commercial class vehicles. It is known that in 2021, these facilities produced at 50 percent capacity.
When Doblo production stops after 2023, this rate will decrease to almost 1 in 4. Therefore, it is said that TOFAŞ may undertake the production of a different commercial class vehicle here. Of course, it is not yet known whether this vehicle will be an alternative to Doblo or directly enter the heavy commercial class.
The biggest reason behind this decision is the desire of brands to reduce costs by increasing their joint production activities. For this reason, Fiat (Doblo), Peugeot (Rifter), Opel (Combo), Citroen (Berlingo) and Toyota (Proace City) will produce light commercial vehicles with the same infrastructure. In fact, when we look at the vehicles, we see that they look exactly the same except for the front grille and the brand logo.
Here, some are distinguished by the engine they use, and some by the technologies offered in the interior and driving support. Of course, it should be noted that not all of them will take place in the market of all European countries at the same time.
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