One of the leading automotive companies in Turkey, Tofaş, a joint venture of Turkey's Koç Holding and Italy's Fiat Chrysler, has decided to start the facelift investment of the Egea/Tipo car family produced at the Tofaş's plant located in the northwestern province of Bursa.

In a statement to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP), Tofaş said it is foreseen to invest approximately $225 million by the end of 2020.

"With the material disclosures dated 10/25/2013 and 11/6/2014, the duration of the publicly disclosed project has been extended until the end of 2024," the company said.

Within the scope of the first investment plan, the statement read, 1.3 million units of production targeted in the 2015-2023 period have been realized as approximately 530,000 units up to now and with the contribution of the new investment, a total of 1.45 million pieces of production, 70 percent of which is for export markets, is targeted during the project period of 2015-2024.

"In this context, it is foreseen to invest approximately $225 million by the end of 2020 and it is planned to start production of new vehicles in the last quarter of 2020," Tofaş said.

In a statement yesterday, Tofaş CEO Cengiz Eroldu said the Fiat Egea has been the most preferable automobile in Turkey for the last three years, indicating that Fiat Egea, which was chosen "Best-Buy Car Of The Year In Europe" at AutoBest 2016, is also maintaining its market success in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

"The Egea model will continue providing value added to our country's economy with the export volume it creates," Eroldu said.

In 2015 Tofaş introduced a sedan body vehicle as the first member of the Egea family, the company's new passenger car project. The model also went on sale in other countries' markets as of December of the same year. With the completion of project-related investments, hatchback and station wagon versions of the Egea family also went on sale in 2016. Costing about $1 billion, the project to develop these models represents one of the biggest product investments ever undertaken in the history of the Turkish automotive industry.

The sedan member of the Fiat Egea family sold 34,000 units in 2018 and holds the title of being "Turkey's Best-Selling Automobile" for the last three years. Founded in 1968, Tofaş is said to be the only company in Turkey that manufactures both passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. With an annual production capacity of 450,000 vehicles and with nearly 9,000 employees, Tofaş is Turkey's fourth-biggest industrial enterprise.

Having had an export ratio of 80 percent in 2018, the company is carrying exports to around 80 countries. It exported 243,832 units last year, while its total production stood at 301,750 units. One of the important strategic production facilities of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles around the world, Tofaş is also one of the biggest research and development (R&D) centers in Europe.