Turkey begins its production its first electric SUVby name TOGG T10X, which will cost as much as an equivalent Tesla brand car. “Demand for the car is so great that the first vehicles will be given away by lottery,” it publishes RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland. “This year, just 12,000 will initially be sold on the open market, while 177,400 would-be buyers have signed up to the waiting list, paying €3,000 in advance. Production will then increase to 100,000 vehicles. From 2024, exports will also begin.” Also, “in order to improve TOGG’s chances in the market, the Turkish government increased import taxes on Chinese electric cars by 40%.”

However, although “even on paper, the size of the car’s battery is large, in reality there will be problems in practice, because there are very few charging stations in Turkey outside the big cities so far.”

RND also points out that “the automotive industry is Turkey’s most important export sector. However, until now, it did not produce its own models, but assembled vehicles from foreign companies such as Ford, Fiat, Toyota and Mercedes. TOGG is the first successful domestic development of an automotive model. But, in this too, 49% of the components still comes from abroad. […] For Erdogan, who drove the new car with his wife Emine, it is a strong card in the election campaign. Six weeks before the presidential elections, TOGG demonstrates the performance of the Turkish economy, symbolizing, as Erdogan stated, “the country’s global prestige”.