Cars have been manufactured in Turkey for a long time in cooperation with large car factories. Now the dream is to have its own car brand.
15:19•Updated 15:28
Controversy has arisen in Turkey over the country’s first domestic electric car.
The new TOGG car has been characterized in the pro-government media as a source of great pride and as Turkey’s first national car brand.
For example, critics belonging to the Turkish opposition think that the launch of a new car model is part of the president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan re-election campaign. According to critics, the new car is also too expensive and assembled from foreign parts.
Factory or backstage?
In wild speculations, it has been claimed that the factory ceremonially opened by President Erdoğan is a backdrop where no assembly line is visible, and cars are not manufactured at least in series production. Journalist and economic commentator Mustafa Sonmez posted a tweet showing a very unfinished looking factory. However, it is unclear when the video was shot.
Togg and the Minister of Industry of Turkey Mustafa Varank shared their own video responses showing a factory in operation and an assembly line where Welding Robots make a car body.
Turkey has a long history of the automotive industry, where factories have manufactured models designed elsewhere under license, for example in cooperation with Renault and Fiat. However, the cars have been adapted to Turkish conditions and also a significant part of the parts is from Turkey.
At one point, an electric car developed on the basis of the old Saab 9-3 model was being prepared in Turkey. A strange-looking prototype was left as a memory of the project that was left in the middle.
But now in Turkey it is promised that something revolutionary is coming, a modern electric car developed in Turkey from the ground up, TOGG. The name is an abbreviation of the Turkish name of the cooperation group of Turkish car manufacturers. The first cars are SUVs, but more models are on the way, says the manufacturer.
Fulfillment of the manager’s wishes
President Erdoğan is the father of the project in the sense that in 2011, as Prime Minister, he encouraged Turkish industrial companies to develop a 100% Turkish car. Completely domestic industrial products are rare. About half of the parts of the new electric car designed by the Italian company Pininfarina are imported, such as the engine and battery.
Erdoğan has been pictured on several different occasions behind the wheel of the new car, and the factory near Bursa in western Turkey has already seen several ceremonies where the new car rolls out of the factory.
Next year, the plan is to produce less than 20,000 new TOGG cars, which is a small production volume for a car factory. The cars are promised a range of 300 or 500 kilometers, depending on the model. Engine power is stated in horsepower and is said to be either 200 or 400 horsepower depending on the model. There is no definite information about the price yet, but it is thought to be around 50,000 euros.
Political confrontation can get in the way
The mayor of Istanbul, representing the opposition party CHP, said after the opening of the car factory that the city of Istanbul was unsuccessfully tried to order (you switch to another service)100 cars. The answer was that apart from the pre-orders made by President Erdoğan, no new orders will be taken at this stage.
However, it had already been announced to the public that the acceptance of orders will only start in February 2023, so the mayor of Istanbul perhaps also wanted to do a little politics around the new car. The factory’s announcement raised suspicions that the opening held on Turkey’s National Day on October 29 was just a show, production will only start later.
German news channel Interviewed by Deutsche Welle (you go to another service) car supplier Demir Özpeynirci stated that political tensions could harm the car brand if the project divides the people along the opposition-government line.
The first cars should go on sale in the spring, then there are a few months before the Turkish parliamentary and presidential elections.