Hurriyet – Japanese carmaker Toyota’s first vehicle to carry a BMW diesel engine will roll off the line in Türkiye by January 2014. The Verso family car, in production at Toyota’s Turkish plant since 2009, will be the first Toyota to benefit from the Toyota-BMW technology collaboration deal in which the two leading automakers agreed to supply engines to each other.
With the addition of the 1.6 D-4D model, which is powered by a BMW diesel engine, Toyota’s Sakarya plant in northwestern Türkiye will be offering four diesel and two gasoline engine versions of the Verso, currently being exported to more than 50 countries in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Toyota Türkiye also manufactures the company’s popular Corolla sedan at the Sakarya plant alongside the Verso at a combined rate of 150,000 vehicles per year. The company invested EUR 150 million in the plant during the last two years that followed the decision to end Auris production and restart the Corolla line, creating 900 new jobs in the process.
Türkiye’s well-established automotive industry topped the country’s exports in 2012 with a total volume of USD 19 billion. In addition to Toyota, several other automakers such as Honda, Ford, Renault, Fiat, and Hyundai have production operations in Türkiye.