Inside Ford’s Turkish goldmine: home of the Transit

“We consider this as our most successful partnership in our history,” Hans Schep, head of Ford Pro in Europe, told journalists on a recent visit to the giant waterside Kocaeli plant in Izmit, Turkey.

One big reason for the boost in Ford Otosan revenue last year is that in 2022 the joint venture agreed to pay €625 million (£535 million) to buy Ford’s Romania plant that makes the Puma small SUV as well as the newly launched Transit Courier compact van.

The addition of Romania and the recent overhaul of the Kocaeli plant in Turkey means that Ford Otosan now has one of the biggest manufacturing footprints of any vehicle maker in Europe, with a production capacity of 746,500 and a staff of 23,701. By next year that production capacity will rise to 900,000.

Of that, Romania accounts for 272,000 with the rest coming from Turkey. Kocaeli, with its deep port access, is actually two facilities split by a river. Golcuk, established in 2001, is home of the large Transit, but it’s the Yenikoy facility established next door in 2014 that looks furthest into the future of Ford Otosan’s “low-cost, high-quality” manufacturing.

This facility builds the new Transit Custom one-tonne van in electric, plug-in hybrid and diesel formats and later this year will build the related Volkswagen Transporter replacement after Ford Otosan increased capacity to 405,000 vehicles a year.

The key to the financial success is that Kocaeli runs on three shifts, six days a week, meaning that last year was operating at 84% capacity. Contrast this with the 20% capacity of factories run by Ford and its Chinese joint-venture partner Changan, according to recent figures from Bloomberg.

The revamped facility Yenikoy is impressively automated at more than 82% in the body shop. Autonomous trolleys whisk parts to the assembly line, with one each for the Transit Custom and VW Transporter replacement.

Ford remains cautious on investment, however. For example, last year it postponed a planned battery plant in Turkey after noting weakening demand for electric vans.

Turkey’s success is bound to trigger some residual pain in the UK knowing Transit production was once a staple of Southampton until it was moved out in 2013. But the UK still has as strong connection with Ford Otosan.

For example, every diesel Transit destined for export out of Turkey comes with an engine built at Ford’s Dagenham facility in Essex, while upcoming electric versions of the Courier van and Puma built in Craiova will receive electric drive units assembled at Ford’s old gearbox facility in Halewood, Merseyside.

The deputy manager of Ford Otosan – Ford’s highest-ranking employee at the joint venture – is Britain’s Jo Payne, a Hall of Fame entrant into Autocar’s Great Women in the British Car Industry initiative.