Tofaş

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Türk Otomobil Fabrikasi A.Ş

Type	Public
Founded	1969
Headquarters	Istanbul, Turkey
Key people	Alfredo Altavilla — CEO
Industry	Manufacturing
Products	Automobiles
Revenue	unknown
Employees	unknown
Website	www.tofas.com.tr

1 Introduction
2 History
3 Racing
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Introduction

TOFAŞ (pronounced "toh-fash") is a Turkish automaker, based in Istanbul, Turkey and with a plant in Bursa. It builds Fiat models under license and also some locally-designed vehicles (mainly used as taxicabs).

[edit] History

The first Tofaş model was a Fiat 124, produced under licence from Fiat and locally named Tofaş Murat 124. Subsequently this model was replaced by a long production run of cars based on the Fiat 131, the Murat, the Doğan and the Kartal. Tofaş still maintains a close relationship with Fiat, producing its models both for the domestic market and for other European countries.

One of the greatest dreams that Vehbi Koç had in his life was to grant and automotive factory to Turkey. Realizing this dream in the year 1968, he set up the Turkish Automotive Factory Inc. TOFAŞ in short… The foundations of the Turkish automotive industry were laid with this large project.

Today, Tofaş still retains its quality of being one of the flagship organizations not only in the Turkish Automotive Industry but also in the Turkish economy. It makes production for both the home market and many countries of the world, and its models are licensed for production in Egypt by the state owned Nasr car company.

Foundations of the factory, of which the headquarters is in Istanbul, were laid on 13 April 1969 and it started the first serial production on 12 February 1971. The area of the factory was 735.170 square meters with 61.848 square meters being enclosed space. Now, following a continuous increase because of the investments done in line with the new needs, it amounted to 1 million square meters of which 350.000 square meters is enclosed space.

Founded in the first place for producing 20.000 cars, Tofaş constantly grew by taking into consideration the continuously expanding home market and the export potential. As a result, it has become a modern enterprise which has the economic scale for producing 250 thousand cars a year today.

Tofaş Factory

Tofaş Şahin

Starting its serial production with model 124 following its foundation, Tofaş launched the production of series 131 and later on Tempra simultaneously with Fiat Auto. These models were followed relatively by Tipo and Uno. Tofaş still produces the models Palio, Albea, Marea and Doblò.

The headcount of workers, technicians and engineers, which was 1.000 at the beginning has today come close to 5.000 with the rising capacity.

Having made ‘quality’ a philosophy of life from design to the materials used, from production to after-sales support, Tofaş marked a first in its industry by obtaining the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Certificate in November 1998 following the work it initiated to that effect. In January, 2002 it was entitled for the second time to obtain the ISO 14001 Certificate.

Having made an investment of 10 million dollars for the protection of the environment since the year 1990, Tofaş pays attention to using materials that do not lead to environmental pollution in the cars that it produces. In all Tofaş models, the catalytic converter system is used for preventing the waste gases from creating air pollution. It has also fulfilled long ago many other new rules of the European concerning air pollution. 95% of the waste created during production is recycled. The other waste that cannot be recycled is rendered harmless in accordance with the legislation. Tofaş adopted the norm Euro 3, which includes the new rates of European Union concerning emission, in all its products as of the beginning of the year 2001.

[edit] Racing

Like all the other leading automotive organizations of the world, Tofaş also dedicates special attention to the motor sports. Being initiated into the races in 1970s, Tofaş brought about a fresh excitement to the race circuits with the Uno Cup it organized in the year 1993. This adventure continued with Tipo Cup and Palio Cup. It obtained the title of Turkish Champion of Brands with the Fiat Palio Kit Car, the first rally car in Turkey, by competing in the categories of Rally, Rally Cross, Circuit and Escalation in the years 2001 and 2002. It's good for all.

v • d • e Tofaş

Current models

Historic models

TOFAŞ Corporate Website | Fiat Website