Ford Otosan’s new-generation commercial vehicle and battery assembly factory investment in Turkey's industrial Kocaeli province will benefit from project-based government incentives, the Official Gazette showed Friday.
To be made through a fixed investment worth around TL 20.5 billion ($2.6 billion), the investment will span six years, the statement said.
Once completed, the joint venture of Koç Holding, Turkey's largest conglomerate, and U.S. automotive giant Ford is expected to produce 210,000 new-generation commercial vehicles and 130,000 batteries per year.
The investment is said to provide 3,000 additional jobs, and the number of qualified personnel is projected to be 200.
The Industry and Technology Ministry will be able to provide an additional period of half of the initial period in case the investment is not realized within the prescribed period.
The investment project will be able to benefit from support such as customs duty exemption, value-added tax (VAT) exemption, VAT refund, tax deduction, 10-year insurance premium employer share support without the maximum amount limit, 10-year income tax withholding support, a maximum of TL 250 million of qualified personnel support and allocation of investment ground.
In a separate statement on Friday, Ford Otosan said the investment is aimed at implementing the new generation of electric and linked commercial vehicle projects and developing automation and modernization of the company’s production facilities.
Based on Ford’s continued commercial vehicle market leadership in Europe and increasing market share success, the company said it anticipates increasing its installed capacity to meet growing demand in the commercial vehicle market.
The carmaker this week announced it has initiated works to establish the battery assembly plant for electric vehicles in Kocaeli.
The Kocaeli facility, located in the Gölcük distirict, is the largest commercial vehicle production hub for Ford in Europe.
The firm, with its other plants in Kocaeli, will have the first integrated electric vehicle production facility in the country, Haydar Yenigün, the general manager, said. The battery assembly factory is planned to be operational by 2022.
Previously, the firm produced Turkey’s first plug-in hybrid commercial vehicle – Transit Custom Plug-In Hybrid – and was recently assigned responsibility to manufacture E-Transit, Ford’s first all-electric commercial van.
Ford said the E-Transit will deliver up to a range of 350-kilometer (217 miles) with a 67 kilowatt-hour, 400-volt lithium-ion battery pack.
The vehicle will be produced for North American customers at the Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Missouri, in the U.S.
E-Transit, expected to be available for European customers in early 2022, is part of Ford’s more than $11.5 billion global investment in electrification through 2022.
Ford Otosan supplies the European market with Transit family light commercial vehicles.
Yenigün also said Ford Otosan is one of the largest investors in the country with 2.5 billion euros (around $3.08 billion) in investments, of which 56 million euros was in electric car production, in the last decade.
