Engineers at Ford Otosan have commissioned Turkey's first heavy commercial transmission test rooms, the company said in a statement.
It is another significant development toward the mass production of Turkey's first domestic transmission, which was launched last year.
Ford Otosan engineers have been working on the transmission for about two years now and the company has invested almost 49.5 million euros ($55.18 million) in the project.
The automaker wants to use the domestic transmission in its trucks produced at its Eskişehir facility.
The transmission test centers feature full in-house facilities, will provide a significant cost advantage and improve the company's global competitiveness.
Ford Otosan General Manager Haydar Yenigün said the production of a domestic transmission was a milestone for the Turkish automotive industry.
"Ford Otosan started to produce the first domestic heavy commercial transmission at the beginning of last year, following an investment of 49.5 million euros. We plan to use the transmission in our trucks as of 2021," he said.
"Before the production process, however, the transmissions undergo thousands of hours of testing to ensure they can compete worldwide and prove they are durable, high-quality and technologically sound. Thanks to the newly established transmission test rooms, we now have a significant cost advantage. This will also keep national resources within our country. We have completed more than 3,000 hours of testing at our test centers that meet all international standards. We have achieved quite successful results in this regard," Yenigün added.
Accordingly, Ford Otosan has developed a unique concept for test centers, designed and developed by Turkish engineers. The company continues to work to obtain the necessary patents, including its transmission test concept and software. All the software and mechanical design used in the state-of-the-art test rooms stand out as a feat of Ford Otosan engineering.
Ford Otosan has commissioned a total of three transmission test rooms in Eskişehir. The test rooms have drawn a lot of attention with their open-source code control and software division that can continuously be improved.
