Erdogan rolls out first Turkish electric vehicle ahead of elections

Turkey rolled out its first domestically-produced electric vehicle at a ceremony on Saturday as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeks to highlight economic successes ahead of elections next year.

“Turkey’s domestic car, Togg, will hit the roads of Europe with all of its models,” Erdogan said after driving the first vehicle to leave the production line. “They will say ‘crazy Turks’ are coming,” he added.

Bloomberg reported that Turkey has inked a deal with one of the world’s most prominent companies to build a lithium ion battery factory near Togg’s production site in Bursa.

Sales of the first Togg model, the C-segment SUV, are set to begin at the end of the third quarter of 2023.

The plan is to export the Turkish EV to Europe and then the rest of the world after 15-18 months of domestic sales only.

Bloomberg reported that the ruling party wants to show off major projects ahead of elections scheduled for June 2023 to contrast with the country’s deepening economic woes amid soaring inflation driven by the central bank’s unorthodox interest-rate cuts.

The state has backed the project with tax cuts, free land, low borrowing costs and a government purchase guarantee of 30,000 vehicles a year until the end of 2035. Car prices have skyrocketed this year due to inflation.