There is a trend in the global automotive industry with electrified, autonomous, shared and connected technologies. Also, environmental friendly technologies continue to be most important item in the agenda of automotive industry. I believe that this energy and environmental sensitivity will continue in the long period.
Automotive sector in Turkey developed very successfully and has increased competitiveness of the country. Today, Turkey is the fifth-largest automotive production base in Europe and recognized as a regional base of automotive and supplier industry with the high quality and value-added production. The automotive industry in Turkey, which has been operating for more than sixty years, has been the export champion for years. Thanks to the long history of automotive manufacturing, Turkey produces vehicles mainly for export. Currently, there are lots of suppliers producing variety of parts, engine, etc. In 2017, Turkey’s automotive production reached an all-time high, rolling out 1.7 millions of vehicles. This was an increase of 14% compared with 2016, according to a report from the Turkish Automotive Manufacturers Association. On the other hand export of the industry has increased by 20% and reached to 28.9 billion USD. The year 2017 that we have left behind has become a year of records not only for the entire Turkish automotive industry, but also for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey. The total production, which was 1.7 million units this year, was recorded as the highest production volume reached until today. We are so pleased that we have made a significant contribution to this success of the Turkish automotive industry with the increase in our production and export in parallel with the increased capacity. There is a trend in the global automotive industry with electrified, autonomous, shared and connected technologies. Also, environmental friendly technologies continue to be most important item in the agenda of automotive industry. I believe that this energy and environmental sensitivity will continue in the long period. In Toyota’s corporate culture, developing environmentally friendly products and having environmentally friendly production facilities is one of the top priorities. We believe that hybrid technology is the most effective way in the transition period to the environmentally friendly technologies. Alongside our standard hybrid and plug-in hybrid technology studies, we are also working on mass production and long-range electric vehicles. Turkish automotive industry should be more focused on improvement of its R&D, design and branding capabilities to be competitive in the global business environment. As Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey, with a total investment of 2.3 billion US $ and total exports about 30 billion US $, we will continue to contribute to the economy & society and we will continue to contribute positively to Turkey’s foreign trade with export surplus. With our over 5000 employees, our production in 3 shifts and 6 days will be maintained in 2018 too. Also, we are going to continuously improve our models this year. We will make some preparations for this purpose.