Turkey unveils prototypes of 1st domestic car by realizing a long-waited dream

Think of a dream that turns into reality 60 years later. A dream for which a team of dedicated engineers worked hard in 1961. Alas, it was not realized but its story became very famous in Turkey with a movie shot in 2008. Producing a fully homegrown car was a long-waited dream for Turkey. After 60 years, Turkey now introduced a preview version of its firstto-be-domestic car models which will be also fully electric. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called in 2011 for investors to manufacture Turkey’s first indigenous car, following the appetite of the 1960s. Upon his call, in June 2018, five Turkish industry giants including Anadolu Group, BMC, Kok Group, Turkcell and Zorlu Holding and an umbrella organization, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) agreed to create Turkey’s Automobile Initiative Group (TOGG) in a bid to produce the country’s first domestic car. TOGG was on the scene unveiling the preview version of the C-SUV models of first fully homemade car project expected to create an investment of cost 22 billion Turkish lira ($3.7 billion) aiming to produce 175,000 electric cars annually.

business models such as demand-based mobility, data-driven business models, autonomous and sharing vehicles. Everyone is at the beginning of the electric and connected automobile race in the world. Agile, creative, collaborative and user-oriented organizations will succeed in this race. We are in the right place at the right time.”

The unveiling ceremony named “Innovation Journey Meeting” was held at the Gebze Information Technologies Valley located in the Marmara Region on December 27 2019. Erdogan and over 1,000 people were among the witnesses at the ceremony.

“Today, we are witnessing a historic day, the fruition of Turkey’s 60-year-long dream,” Turkish President Erdogan said at the ceremony. He said TOGG will manifacture not only for Turkish market but also aims to create a global brand. Erdogan underlined that the cars will be environmentally friendly and had an advance order for the car. After the speech, he had a test drive with the C-SUV model.

The fully electric SUV will come in two different engine configurations with 200 horsepower or 400 horsepower, TOGG CEO Gurcan Karakas said during the ceremony.

Karakas explained their conception of the “new league” and the “innovation journey” as follows; “Turkey’s Automobile” project has started in the right place at the right time. Mega trends, social areas and changing technologies transformed the automobile into a new living space after home and work. With this transformation, profit pools in automotive industry are changing hands. Growth in the sector will come from more profitable new

Designed by being inspired from Turkish culture He said the SUV is the fastest growing segment of in the last 5 years and will remain so in the coming years both in the world and also in Turkey.

Stating that Turkish customers favour SUV models most, he shared further details;

“Also, we know that this is the most suitable segment to create a popular brand as it is the most desired segment by Turkish consumers, alas a domestically produced alternative is almost nonexistent. Intellectual and industrial property rights 100% belong to Turkey. We are working to create Turkey’s global brand in a professional integrity, with all our strength and with the bests in the world. From the very beginning, we planned our 15-year roadmap step by step. We formed a team mostly of engineers who are competent, dedicated people with global work experiences and with an average work experience of over 10 years. Our team, which grows every day, has reached to 114 people. We created an organization that can make fast and agile decisions and adopted a useroriented approach and we listen to the market and user expectations in all our decisions. We value all the experience and competencies of our country. While building a new car brand, we also create a global brand and enter a competition with the world. We will have Turkey’s Automobile with its broad product line, conceptual charm, technological capabilities, industrial power and details inspired from our culture.”

He announced that prominent Turkish designer Murat Gunak was among the TOGG’s designers during all this process. Designer Gunak worked for Peugeout, Volkswagen and Mercedes. He is well-known with his design of Mercedes – Benz C Class models.

Karakas said, “We received support from Gunak in eliminating the 18 domestic and foreign design houses to 3, in the formation of the final design theme and in the selection process of Pininfarina, which made our theme 3-dimensional. We registered our original design which we in September, 2019”.

He put ambitious targets as saying that TOGG will become a platform for the execution and delivery of new technology and new business ideas to the users during the transformation of the automobiles into a smart device, likening the automotive industry with the mobile phone industry. In that sense, Karakas said, TOGG will be the first company to proudly represent Turkey in the global mobility world.

“We believe that this will also make a difference in the world,” he noted.

Karakas also stated that the brand name of the domestic car will be determined until the middle of 2020. It is important for the brand name to have both cultural and global implications also be original and strong, he said.

Cars to hit roads by 2022 The 400 horsepower will do 0 to 100 kph in 4.8 seconds while it will have a range of up to 500 kilometers and its locally produced Lithium-ion battery will reach 80% charge under 30 minutes. The mass production factory will be constructed in the northwestern province of Bursa, regarded as the “heart of Turkish automotive industry.

The construction is planned to start in the first half of 2020.

1 million square meters of a 4-million-squaremeter parcel of land in Bursa’s Gemlik district which currently belongs to the Turkish Armed Forces will be allocated for the factory of which construction will be completed in 2021. The mass production for Turkey’s first domestic and electric car will start in 2022.

By 2030, the TOGG plans to produce 5 different models on a joint e-platform, with fully owned intellectual and industrial property rights. The $3.7 billion investment will be free of any tax cuts, enjoy free land allocation and interest rate reductions. The project will employe 4.3 million people including 300 qualifed personnel. The indirect workforce created thanks to the project will reach 20,000. Turkey to be Europe’s first non-classical born electric SUV manufacturer in 2022 Turkish government officials said that the recharhing infrastructure before the cars hit the roads in 2022 will be ready but did not provide further details. Turkish government will guarantee the purchase of 30,000 units of the vehicle by 2035.

For the first time in the world, Holographic Assistant technology will be used in the domestic car which will provide drivers with some advantages and enhance interactivity between the driver and the car. The battery lifetime of the vehicles is announced for 8 years while the fast recharging duration is planned for 30 minutes.

According to the information provided by TOGG, Turkey will take its place in the industry as Europe’s first non-classical born electric SUV manufacturer as of 2022.

Automotive sector leads Turkey’s exports Nonetheless, Turkey is currently a big automobile exporter to Europe thanks to domestic production of a number of global brands like Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Renault, Toyota and Hyundai.

The automotive industry is champion of Turkey’s exports with $30.6 billion in 2019 and accounts 16.5% of country’s total exports, according to data of the Uludag Automotive Industry Exporters’ Association located in Bursa.

European Union (EU) led Turkish automotive industry exports with $23.4 billion and created 77% of Turkey’s total exports in 2019.

The exports of private cars stood at $11.4 billion, presenting almost 37% of the total automotive exports of the country.

Germany led among EU countries by importing cars and automotive industry equipment from Turkey worthy of $4.4 billion, the data showed. France is the second biggest importer of cars produced in Turkey with $3.4 billion in 2019, while Italy is the third with $2.9 billion.

The U.K. occupied the fourth space in the list with $2.45 billion automotive sector imports from Turkey last year.

Conventional private cars, minibus, midibus and bus are among those manufactured in Turkey while there is no production of a fully electric car model.

Global electric car industry at a glance As part of the efforts to tackle climate change and keeping up with technological developments, electric vehicles have been spreading over the past 10 years.

The deployment of electric cars surpassed 5 million in 2018, marking an increase of 63% from the year before, a report by International Energy Agency (IEA) showed. China had the biggest share of the stock with 2.3 million cars representing 45% of the total while Europe accounted for 24% and the United States 22% of it, the IEA’s Global EV Outlook 2019 revealed.

In terms of European countries, Germany, France, Netherlands, Norway and the UK lead electric car stock with favorable government policies, incentives, and infrastructure investment.

In parallel with the growth of the electric car fleet, the number of charging points was estimated to be around 5.2 million by the end of 2018, which is up 44% from the previous year, according to IEA data.

The project is calculated to contribute $50 billion to the country’s GDP and help reduce $7.5 billion of Turkey’s current account deficit. Turkey’s current account deficit is expected to be $30 billion by the end of 2019, according to temporary data of the country’s Trade Ministy. Turkey’s Energy Ministry expects over 1 million electric cars by 2030 Over 1 million electric vehicles are anticipated to be on Turkey’s roads by 2030, Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister announced.

“By 2022 or 2023, we hope to see our own indigenous automobile on the roads,” Fatih Donmez said. Following the country’s launch of its first indigenous and all-electric automobile prototype, the energy ministry is now planning to assess the impact of 1 million charge points on the country’s electricity distribution network, Dönmez said.

“These points should be able to charge a car in nearly 15-25 minutes, depending on the car battery’s capacity and features, which means there needs to be a capacity of 50-100 kilowatt-hours in

What are Turkey’s numbers in electric cars? Turkey’s roads currently witness the journey of around 1,000 electric cars while the number of the charging points are at the same level. According to newly conducted study by SHURA Energy Transition Center based in Istanbul, 2,5 million electric cars could hit the roads by 2030.

It is estimated to create 10% of the total vehicle stock of the country in the same year.

At the same period, around 1,000 charging points are expected to be placed.

Currently, transportation sector represents 26% of Turkey’s total fi nal energy demand and it ranks as the second largest responsible sector for CO2 emissions as it is predominantly based on oil products.

the grid,” he explained. Therefore, fast-charging units located in the selected areas need to have sufficient power supply to cope with this electricity requirement.

“TOGG’s expectation from us [energy ministry] is to include not only the big cities in Turkey but also other smaller cities in Anatolia where there is great interest,” the energy minister said. Domestic car production a 60-year goal for Turkey Turkey’s efforts to produce an fully homegrown car model goes back to 1960s.

A team was assigned for producing the first domestic car called Devrim (Revolution) in 1961 by then-President Cemal Gursel. The team designed and manufactured 4 cars that were unveiled on October 29, 1961, during Republic Day ceremony of the country. Turkish Locomotive and Motor Industry then named Eskisehir Railway Factories was used as the manufacturing center of the 4 models.

However, one of the cars stopped due to insufficient gasoline while President Gursel was in it for a test drive. The stopping of the car due to lack of gasoline led the way for discussions about the success of the project and turned into a negative propaganda against Devrim. The government cancelled the project and Turkey maintained its desire for a fully homegrown car.

One of the Devrim cars remained in a working stated and it is currently kept in a specially constructed glazed garage in the garden of Turkish Locomotive and Engine Industry in Eskisehir, a Central Anatolian province. The historical story of Devrim was filmed by Turkish director Tolga Ornek in 2008 who defined it “as the story of a dream.”

Devrim was also taken to the unveiling ceremony of TOGG prototypes in Gebze.