Tofas starts K9 series production in Bursa as Fiat Doblo returns to the line

Tofas has started series production under its K9 project. At a ceremony held at the Tofas plant in Bursa on Monday, October 26, 2026, the first vehicle to roll off the line was the Fiat Doblo. The model is back in production in Bursa after a three-year break.

The project was launched with an investment of about 300 million dollars under an agreement signed in September 2025 between Koc Group and Stellantis. The Doblo was first built in Bursa in 2000 and remained in production at Tofas until 2023. In Turkey, it has sold more than 600,000 units over 26 years.

Which models will be built under K9

Alongside the Doblo, the Citroen Berlingo, Opel Combo, Peugeot Rifter and Peugeot Partner will also be built in Bursa. Five models from four brands will therefore be brought together under one roof. The vehicles will be produced in cargo and passenger-carrying combi versions. The platform supports several powertrain options, giving the plant room to add electric light commercial vehicle output if demand grows.

Annual capacity is 100,000 units. Tofas CEO Cengiz Eroldu said about 20 percent of production will be exported. The K9 project targets roughly 660,000 vehicles by the last quarter of 2034. If the existing K0 project runs at full capacity of around 100,000 units, the plant's annual finished vehicle output is expected to reach 230,000 to 250,000 units.

Employment, local content and R&D

The project plans to employ about 1,000 people, and around 100 local suppliers have been included in the production process. The local content target is around 50 percent. More than 300 engineers and technical staff worked at the Tofas R&D Center, which also carried out performance, durability, safety and quality tests.

Koc on Made in EU

Omer Koc, chairman of the Koc Holding board, said talks with Stellantis on other new models for Tofas are ongoing. He warned that the EU's Made in EU approach risks overlooking the 30-year-old customs union relationship, and said that steps based on reciprocity may be unavoidable to protect production and engineering capacity.

Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacir also spoke at the ceremony, saying that car sales in Turkey, which stood at 300,000 a year in the early 2000s, can now reach 1.5 million.