The Tofaş R&D Center’s target is to be a globally competitive product and technology development center which, in keeping with requirements, adopts and adapts existing technologies and rapidly deploys new ones.

CONTINUOUSLY INVESTING IN INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of its foundation in 2019, the Tofaş R&D Center seeks to contribute to the national economy by developing passenger and light commercial vehicles that are technologically compatible with market needs and distinguished by their engineering and design details.

The Tofaş R&D Center’s target is to be a globally competitive product and technology development center which, in keeping with requirements, adopts and adapts existing technologies and rapidly deploys new ones. The center seeks to realize this target by successfully formulating projects for new products that address market needs and then supplying such products to market and by improving existing products in line with expectations. In order to achieve these objectives, the Tofaş R&D Center gives importance to working within an expanded R&D network and value-creation chain that encompasses both universities and co-designing suppliers and engineering firms. The center also plans and undertakes innovative-technology research projects so as to support its priorities.

Equipped with everything that it needs to compete with its global peers in the areas of vehicle research and development, the center employs more than 700 people in a total of 20,110 m2 of laboratory and office space. With its high-tech laboratories and diversified range of capabilities, the Tofaş R&D Center is the FCA’s only research and development center serving the European market that is not located in Italy.

As of 2019, the total value of all of the design and test infrastructure investments completed at the Tofaş R&D Center in the areas of vehicles’ concept, styling, bodywork, interior design, suspension, engines, emissions, vibration, and acoustics aspects topped EUR 48 million in value. The Tofaş R&D Center has increased its capability of developing more competitive products with its new test areas. The Tofaş R&D Center invested EUR 10 million in these test areas which were put into operation in 2019.

GREATER COMPETENCIES IN PRODUCT DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES

The Tofaş R&D Center possesses all of the product engineering design and analysis competencies that may be needed to completely design a vehicle from start to finish. The Tofaş R&D Center keeps a close watch on the latest developments in product and production technologies in line with the company’s strategic goals. Competence development is supported by research projects as well as theoretical and on the job training programs. Tofaş R&D Center constantly improves its competence and product development processes by making use of new technologies. In line with the Tofaş R&D Center’s strategic objectives, the company likewise supports research projects that will lead to gains in product development and manufacturing technology knowhow.

The research studies of the Tofaş R&D Center are addressed towards Tofaş’s strategic priorities, focusing on three cross-cutting grounds: environmental sustainability, meeting social mobility needs and increased productivity. Studies on productivity give priority to digital optimization of processes and low-cost automation in all areas. The Tofaş R&D center’s focus on environmental sustainability addresses such issues as vehicle electrification and reducing vehicles’ weights and energy consumption.

JOINT PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT COLLABORATIONS

A prerequisite for Turkey’s increasing its international visibility and viability as a product development center is an ability to simultaneously address all of the elements of the R&D value-creation chain. This is why Tofaş gives special importance to joint design and development projects, to marshaling the resources of local engineering firms, and to working together with universities. Undertaking university-industry collaboration projects in parallel with its technology-development operations, Tofaş R&D collaborated with sixteen different universities on about 130 projects in the last fifteen years.

In the many projects that are undertaken with the support of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey and of the European Union, the Tofaş R&D Center also works together with university faculty members as well as with the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Research Center and various international design centers.

Having increased the number of EU Research Projects in which it is active to 23, Tofaş R&D also collaborates with nearly two hundred international project partners.

The Tofaş R&D Center’s goal is to increase the number of patents that it applies for every year by coming up with new projects and innovative ideas that create added value. As a result of the innovative work carried out by the Tofaş R&D Center, new applications for 107 domestic and 10 international patents were submitted in 2018. In the conduct of its 2018-2019 operations, the Tofaş R&D Center was intensively engaged in model-improvement projects for the Fiorino, Doblò, and Egea lines. Tofaş R&D engineers also provided support for Jeep® Compass, Fiat 500 BEV, and FCA MOPAR R&D projects. With the completion of feasibility studies for a new Egea model development project, work was begun on the project’s R&D phase. Work was also carried out on projects to develop the Doblò, Egea, and Fiorino lines so as to make these models more competitive. Developmental projects will also continue in 2020.

When recruiting personnel for the Tofaş R&D Center, priority is given to people with advanced academic degrees. As of end-2019, 131 of the center’s staff had been awarded master’s degrees or doctorates. A chart showing the number and academic qualifications of the center’s staff since 2015 as well as the number of engineers employed at the center is presented below.