2023-06-18 18:09:25
Turkey’s first electric car, the Togg T10X, was launched at the end of March with overwhelming demand. The first 20,000 vehicles were drawn from 177,400 applicants at a price of 47,500 euros each. Everyone should have their SUV by the end of December. It is still rare on Turkish roads: According to the car dealer association ODMD, 306 Togg were delivered in May. By the end of July, however, production is to be quadrupled from 40 to 160 vehicles a day.
Andreas Mihm
Business correspondent for Austria, Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey based in Vienna.
Nevertheless, interested parties in Germany will have to wait longer than expected for the driving experience in the “Turkish Tesla”, with its – depending on the battery capacity – 314 or 523 kilometers (standard) range. Instead of next year as announced, the first vehicles are now only to be sold in Central Europe in 2025 or 2026 – significantly later than those of the Chinese competition, which is currently flooding the market. In Germany alone, eight Chinese brands offer e-cars for sale.
But Togg CEO Gürcan Karakas first needs to meet demand at home and iron out teething problems. “First of all, we should show sustained success in our own market,” he told the FAZ in an interview in the brand new plant in Gemlik, two hours’ drive from Istanbul on the Sea of Marmara. “Having organized such a market launch in our home country does not mean that we can also do it in other markets”.
A “smart device” out of nowhere
He also wants to conquer it, but not in haste. “Entering the market is easy, but staying there is a challenge.” The man, who has had an international career at Bosch for 29 years, is happy to accept it. And from 2025 onwards via Scandinavia.
Karakas has several reasons for this. Scandinavians are more open to e-cars, and they also have fewer inhibitions about trying out new brands. This is the right market “to learn” before Togg turns to Germany and France. “It doesn’t matter whether we come a few months earlier or later. The important thing is that we do one thing at a time.”
Just like when building up the company that was founded in mid-2018. Within five years, a new product was created, an organization with more than 4,000 employees was set up, a factory was built on a former military site among olive groves and is now followed by a battery factory – a joint venture with the Chinese manufacturer and supplier Farasis Energy.
“You can also use it as a car”
Because of its many digital features, Karakas prefers to call his Togg a “smart device”. The vehicle, which is constantly connected to the Internet, is intended to be a living and working space in one, more than a means of transport that takes its occupants from A to B. “You can also use it as a car,” says Karakas, emphasizing “also.”
Togg means far more in Turkey than what the translation of Türkiye’nin Otomobili Girisim Grubu into Turkish Automobile Initiative Group would suggest. It is the first car that was developed and built in Turkey, albeit in international cooperation. Togg, the pride of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is a Turkish affair of state. Erdogan, who is more likely to be driven in everyday life with luxury limousines from Baden-Württemberg, drove the first Togg from the factory. He presented two to the President of Azerbaijan. Before the Champions League final in Istanbul last Saturday, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, had to get behind the Togg wheel with Erdogan in the passenger seat, which was unfamiliar to him.
For the Turkish auto industry, Togg is a welcome driver who is helping with the conversion towards electromobility, says Albert Saydam, President of the Turkish auto supplier association Taysad. Until 2019, everyone would only have been talking about electromobility. “Since Togg has been doing it, everyone has been saying: why not us too?” Foreign manufacturers also want to produce e-cars and hybrid engines in large numbers in Turkey.
Owners waive dividends
The auto industry is an important branch of the economy. It claims a quarter of all exports for itself. Karakas emphasizes that more than half of the products used in the Togg come from Turkey. Like the distinctive bumper, whose shiny chrome-silver ribs at the front are meant to be reminiscent of tulips. It is manufactured at Assan Hanil in Izmit, where director Mustafa Demir Özacan is happy to be part of the Togg supplier circle.
There are also critical voices who do not want to be quoted by name. One complained that Togg poached engineers. Another says, to which others nod: “Togg makes everyone happy: the customers, the engineers, the management, the president – just not the owners.” Whether, when and how their capital will earn interest is open.
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The owners are the four corporations Anadolu Group, BMC, Turkcell and Zorlu Holding and the chamber organization TOBB, all linked to the government. The corporations each hold 23 percent of Togg shares, TOBB 8 percent. You have invested 3.5 billion euros. In addition, there are 2.2 billion euros for the battery factory and 100 million for charging stations. The owners waived dividends for a period of 15 years, i.e. until 2033, says Karakas and: “That gives us the freedom to plan.”
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