Habertürk – The first vehicle of the US automotive company Ford in the extra heavy duty truck segment, the Cargo 1846T, has been formally presented to the press in a launch ceremony in Izmir, Türkiye. Engineered by Ford’s Turkish division, Ford Otosan, the new model represents the entry of the brand into the heavy commercial vehicle market along the lines of its “One Ford” strategy which envisions sharing the design of development workload between Ford subsidiaries worldwide to create more globalized vehicles.
The Turkish designed 1846T will be manufactured both in Ford Otosan’s Inonu plant in Eskisehir as well as Ford’s Brazilian plant. “Ford Otosan will be responsible for the development of Ford’s heavy truck product range.”, according to the Director General of Ford Otosan, Haydar Yenigun. “Over 400 Ford Otosan engineers have worked on the Cargo 1846T model for more than 3 years.”, Yenigun said at the launch ceremony, adding that the development cost of the vehicle was around USD 75 million. Ford Otosan aims to sell 3,000 of the new truck in 2013, 500 of them to export buyers in Russia, Eastern Europe, Turkic Republics, North Africa and the Middle East.
Established as a JV between Koc Holding of Türkiye and Ford Motor Company of USA, Ford Otosan manufactured over 180,000 trucks in Türkiye since its incorporation in 1960. The company is a leading manufacturer of light commercial vehicles (LCV) and medium-heavy trucks for global markets. Ford Otosan’s production plant in Kocaeli in western Türkiye also houses the third largest research and development center of Ford’s European operations.