The Tofaş developed Minicargo, is built in three versions - van, Combi (above) and passenger - is supplied to Fiat, Peugeot and Citroën.

Turkish carmaker Tofaş has announced that exports will reach 283,000 units this year as it pushes its production capacity up to 400,000 units and it invests a further US$630 million, announced CEO Ali Pandir.

Tofaş is a 50-50 joint car manufacturing venture between Fiat Group and Turkish national conglomerate Koç Holdings, and yesterday it announced that net profits for 2007 had jumped by 115 percent to US$139 million.

The Bursa-based factory builds the Fiat Doblò and 'Minicargo' (Fiorino) light commercial vans as well as the Linea '3-box' saloon, all three projects which it has led the development programmes for. The Minicargo is also built for the French PSA Group which brands them under the Peugeot (Bipper) and Citroën (Nemo) names.

Last year Tofaş posted a production record of 212,493 units which saw the plant running at 85 percent capacity, up from 71 pct (2006), 65 pct (2005), and 58 pct (2004). This year as production is ramped to 400,000 units to cope with demand for the Minicargo capacity utilisation will rise to 100 pct.

The Minicargo, built in three versions (van, combi and passenger) is supplied to Fiat, Peugeot and Citroën. It began production on 3rd October last year after a 350 million euro investment one month ahead of schedule and will generate annual project revenues of 1.1 billion euros. In a first for Tofas the intellectual property rights are owned by the Turkish company. Annual allocated production capacity is 165,000 units/year, more than 90 percent of which will be exported under a long-term take or pay agreement - two thirds to be taken by PSA, and one third by Fiat Auto. Last year 10,630 units were produced, 8,435 units were exported, 598 units were sold under the Fiat Fiorino name in the local market.