Tofaș, Fiat’s Turkish joint venture, will invest $1 billion to produce a new compact car family that will replace the Bravo and Linea in Europe.
The joint venture company announced it will build three new cars starting in 2016, mainly for export. Tofaș didn’t name the models, but according to sources cited by Automotive News Europe, the cars will be part of a family of compact models including a hatchback, sedan and station wagon.
While the hatchback will replace the Fiat Bravo, the sedan will be the successor to the Linea, currently sold only in central and eastern Europe and Turkey. As for the wagon, it will be a distant successor to the Stilo Multiwagon, discontinued in 2008.
The three new models will be based on Fiat Chrysler’s compact US wide platform which also underpins the Fiat 500L, 500X and Jeep Renegade. Tofaș said it will invest $1 billion (€0.8 billion) to build 700,000 units of the new compact family, 580,000 of which will be sedans. The investment will begin this year, and production will run from 2016 to 2023, the company said.
“A significant portion of the total units are slated for export. Talks with the Fiat Group Automobiles on the details for the conditions of investment, sales and procurement are in the final stage,” Tofaș said in a statement.
In July this year Fiat halted production of the Bravo at its plant in Melfi, Italy, with the facility now building the new Fiat 500X and Jeep Renegade subcompact SUVs. Fiat only sold 3,078 units of the Bravo in the first nine months of this year, 59 percent less than in the same period last year.
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