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BMC (Turkey)
Encyclopedia
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
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It was formed in 1964 by Ergün Özakat in partnership with the British Motor Corporation
British Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation, or commonly known as BMC was a vehicle manufacturer from United Kingdom, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
(also known as BMC) in İzmir
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
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In 1989 the company was fully acquired by the Cukurova Holding of Turkey.
Partnership with British Motor Corporation
British Motor Corporation AustinAustin Motor Company
The Austin Motor Company was a British manufacturer of automobiles. The company was founded in 1905 and merged in 1952 into the British Motor Corporation Ltd. The marque Austin was used until 1987...
and Morris
Morris Motor Company
The Morris Motor Company was a British car manufacturing company. After the incorporation of the company into larger corporations, the Morris name remained in use as a marque until 1984 when British Leyland's Austin Rover Group decided to concentrate on the more popular Austin marque...
vehicles were manufactured at BMC (Turkey) under licence during its early years. 1966 was the first year BMC started adding truck
Truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile...
, light truck, tractor and engine production in its product line.
Other partnerships
In later years BMC evolved and developed other models with partnerships with other firms, and the successors of the British Motor Corporation (which became British Leyland).First, the Leyland 30 was released into the market as the first full-size van.
In 1983, under a partnership with Volvo Trucks
Volvo Trucks
Volvo Trucks is a global truck manufacturer based in Sweden, owned by Volvo Group - AB Volvo it is the world's second largest heavy-duty truck brand....
, BMC produced Yavuz series trucks, then Fatih trucks in cooperation with Cummins
Cummins
Cummins Inc. is a Fortune 500 corporation that designs, manufactures, distributes and services engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission control and electrical power generation systems...
diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
s.
In 2010 BMC unveiled the Kirpi 4x4 MRAP mine protected armoured vehicle, based on the Israeli Hatehof Ltd Navigator.
Takeover
In 1989 the company was fully acquired by the Çukurova Group of Turkey. From that moment on, BMC started to produce its own indigenous product line which is independent from the other major manufacturers.In 1996 BMC started the production of the Profesyonel series, which are produced in Turkey and (since 2004) under licence in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
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BMC also produces bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es as part of the Belde series (since 1993) and Probus series.
Since 2000, BMC exports trucks and buses to numerous countries around the world. When exports to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
began in 2003, this marked the return to the UK of the BMC brand name, not seen on British roads since the 1960s.
MegaStar 2.8 L is built in İzmir (Turkey) by the BMC and production started in 2004. 10 versions of the vehicle are available with 2 different engines, with power ratings of 83 and 95 kW and manual transmission.