Auto Industry in Tr

HISTORY OF AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR

Automotive sector in Turkey has a history for 50 years. In 1960s, “Devrim” was produced at Adapazarı Wagon Factory with supplying the automobile cars from several other factories. This was the first car that was produced in Turkey. Due to the uncompleted assembly process, however, Devrim broke down during the introduction and it was nothing but a disappointment. After Devrim, production process was improved and the efforts for localization increased. As as result, the first Turkish car, “Anadol”, was produced by the investments of Vehbi Koç in 1967. Despite its weakness of physical endurance, Anadol was preferred by customers until 2000s. Anadol was the hope for car foreign car manufacturers in Turkey and in 1970s, Renault as a joint venture with a Turkish company called Oyak started to production in Turkey and sold its products to Turkish customers.

As industrialization became important in Turkey in 1980s, the need for pickup trucks increased and their production took primacy. This was the reason for automobile sector stagnation in 1980s. However, capacity and technological investments were at a high level for the overall automotive sector in those years.

In 1990s, multinational car manufacturers were included to the automotive sector in Turkey and first steps for global competition were observed.

From the early years of 2000s to the recent years, the car brands followed the strategy of improving their production processes with the guide of technological and industrial innovations. Designs of automobiles were improved for the world market, quality management gained an inductive manner and the “lean thinking philosophy” was adopted by almost all of the car manufacturers in Turkey. These important strategies allowed the manufacturers to be continuously competitive in the global market.

IMPORTANCE OF AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR IN TURKISH BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

In Turkey, automotive sector has a crucial role in the industry because of the...