Turkey revealed its first fully domestically-produced car on Friday, stating it intended to eventually produce up to 175,000 annually of the electric vehicle in a project expected to cost 22 billion lira ($3.7 billion) for 13 years.
The project has been a long-time goal of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party as a demonstration of the nation’s rising economic power.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, Erdogan stated Turkey aimed not only to sell the car domestically but also aimed it to become a worldwide brand, starting with Europe.
“We’re all together witnessing Turkey’s 60-year-old dream become reality,” he stated, referring to failed plans in the past to build a completely home-produced car. “When we see this car on roads across the whole world, we will have reached our goal.”
After his speech, a red SUV model of the car and another grey sedan one appeared onto the stage, sporting the TOGG label of the consortium that is constructing them.
Erdogan stated the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles would be ready throughout the country by 2022.
Turkey is already a big exporter to Europe of cars made locally by automakers such as Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Renault, Toyota, and Hyundai.
The new project started in October, will take advantage of state support such as tax breaks, and establish a production center in the automotive hub of Bursa located in northwest Turkey, as per a presidential decision in the nation’s Official Gazette.
Five models of the vehicle will be produced, the statement included, adding the government had guaranteed to purchase 30,000 of the vehicles by 2035.
Erdogan first disclosed plans in November 2017 here to launch a wholly domestically-made car in Turkey by 2021.
The consortium, named Turkey’s Automobile Initiative Group (TOGG), was founded in mid-2018 by five industrial groups: Anadolu Group, BMC, Kok Group, mobile phone operator Turkcell and Zorlu Holding, the parent of TV maker Vestel.
TOGG’s CEO is former Bosch executive Gurcan Karakas and its chief operating officer is Sergio Rocha, who is a former General Motors Korea chief executive. It stated it would start production in 2022 with compact SUVs.
