Erdogan-backed EV maker targets Europe exports next year

ISTANBUL: Turkey’s first homegrown EV maker plans to start exports to Europe from the end of 2024, the culmination of a €3.5 billion (RM17bil) project championed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a key government achievement ahead of this week’s elections.

Togg, the Turkish acronym of the manufacturer, is currently producing cars to meet domestic orders, chief executive officer Gurcan Karakas said at the company’s manufacturing plant in the port town of Gemlik, about 160km south of here.

“We will start producing our smart vehicles for the European market at the end of 2024, starting with Scandinavian countries because these markets are more inclined toward EVs,” said Karakas, a former Robert Bosch GmbH executive until he was hired to lead the project in 2018.

Togg will double sales to more than 50,000 units in 2024 after the 28,000 units planned for this year, he said as he showed journalists around the plant’s bodywork unit where robotic arms assemble the vehicles.

Formally known as Turkiye’nin Otomobili Girisim Grubu AS, Togg is a key campaign achievement for Erdogan ahead of Sunday’s elections, and part of the president’s lore that includes domestically built fighter jets, warships or the breakthrough grain deal between Russia and Ukraine.

(Note: Video in Turkish. Enter Settings to auto translate to English)

His opponents point to the country’s deepening economic woes amid soaring inflation driven by the central bank’s unorthodox interest-rate cuts encouraged by Erdogan.

Erdogan, his wife and several ministers and officials from his Justice and Development Party have been seen driving the electric car since the first deliveries began in April.

While Togg is supported by the government through tax breaks and incentives, it’s a private company, Karakas said.

The government has also supported the project with free land and a purchase guarantee of 30,000 vehicles until the end of 2035.

“Many other automobile projects have also similar government support,” he said.

The first model, a C-segment SUV called the T10X with single and double electric motors that have ranges of 314km and 523km respectively, was unveiled in October and production started earlier this year.

Next year, the company is planning a sedan or cross coupe model, Karakas said. Togg engineers worked with Ferrari designer Pininfarina SpA of Italy to design the cars, he said.

The government is keen to promote Togg as a national project, and Karakas said about 76% of the vehicle’s 5,000-odd parts are domestically made by 130 suppliers.

“What matters here is where the intellectual property rights are produced, not where the parts are made. We developed and produced Togg’s intellectual property rights in Turkey,” he said.

Total investment will be €3.5 billion by 2028 or earlier, including €1.8 billion from shareholders and bank loans to be spent by the end of this year.