Turkish firm produces indigenous diesel engine

A Turkish company is now making and exporting a fuel-saving diesel engine at a price that beats its competitors, said the company CEO.

The Turkish-made, single-cylinder diesel engine was the fruit of 10 years of research and development, said Ersin Şahin of Erinmotor, a subsidiary of Turkish automotive supplier company Şahin Metal.

Erinmotor specially designed and produced all the parts for the 1.16-liter, 24-horsepower industrial diesel engine, he told to Anadolu Agency.

"Our rivals sell the same type of engine for around 14,000 Turkish liras [$2,660] while we sell this engine for 10,500 liras [$1,995]," he said.

The company plans to bring the price down even further, he added.

The engine can be used in off-road vehicles and machines such as construction equipment, generators, snow plows, irrigation equipment, and compressors, he said.

"We made our first exports to Mauritania and Albania and we hope to break into the Tunisian and Algerian markets," he explained.

Erinmotor is continuing its R&D work with a staff of 21 to produce a single-cylinder natural gas engine and a 100-hp, four-cylinder diesel engine.

The company, with investment incentives from the state, has been doing R&D with Istanbul's Yıldız Teknik, one of the country's top engineering schools.