It has been the long-time goal of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party to have a fully domestically-produced electric car as a demonstration of the country’s growing economic power. On Friday, Erdogan unveiled two prototypes of that car.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, Erdogan said Turkey aimed to produce up to 175,000 a year of the electric vehicle in a project expected to cost 22 billion lira ($3.7 billion) over 13 years. The plan is to not only sell the car domestically – but to eventually have it become a global brand, starting in Europe.
“We’re all together witnessing Turkey’s 60-year-old dream become reality,” he said, referring to failed plans in the past to build a fully home-produced car, reports Reuters. “When we see this car on roads around the whole world, we will have reached our goal.”
Following Erdogan’s speech, a red SUV model of the car and another grey sedan model were raised up on the stage. Both vehicles sported the TOGG emblem of the consortium that will build the vehicles.
Erdogan also said the country’s recharging infrastructure for the electric vehicles would be ready by 2022. Many people might not know this, but Turkey is already a big exporter to Europe of cars made domestically by firms such as Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Renault, Toyota, and Hyundai.
The vehicles are being produced by a consortium of five industrial groups: Anadolu Group, BMC, Kok Group, mobile phone operator Turkcell and Zorlu Holding, the parent of TV maker Vestel. They call themselves the Automobile Initiative Group of Turkey, or TOGG. The new project was started in October and will receive state support such as tax breaks, according to Auto Blog.
The production facility will be built on former military-owned land in Bursa in northwest Turkey and is set to be completed in 2021. According to Turkish media, the car was designed by Italy’s Pininfarina design firm, which has created models for Ferrari and US-based electric car maker Karma.
Five different models of the TOGG are expected to hit the market in 2022. TOGG’s CEO is former Bosch executive Gurcan Karakas and its chief operating officer is Sergio Rocha, former General Motors Korea chief executive.
