Automotive Exports February 2023

Togg to enter
foreign markets
in two years
The aim is to commence the export of
domestically produced Togg vehicles in two
years after the vehicles are introduced to
the local market, Industry and Technology
Minister Mustafa Varank has said.
Varank visited Togg’s “Digital Mobility
Garden” at the major CES tech show in the
U.S.
Togg, the country’s first homemade electric
vehicle, will start to collect pre-orders in
February.
“We will see Togg vehicles on [Türkiye’s]
roads toward the end of March. Our target
is to start exporting [Togg] two years after
they are introduced to the local market,”
Varank said.
Works are underway to obtain necessary
permissions for Togg vehicles in several
countries but chiefly in Europe, he added.
“Presently, there is demand [of Togg
vehicles] from the world’s different
regions…from the Middle East, Central Asia
and Europe,” Varank said.
The inauguration of the Togg factory took
place on Oct. 29, 2022, in the Gemlik
district of the industrial province of
Bursa, and the first car rolled off from the
assembly line with a ceremony attended by
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Togg plans to produce 20,000 C-SUV
vehicles this year, and its plant will initially
have an annual production capacity of
100,000 vehicles but the capacity will
later rise to 175,000 units as Togg starts to
manufacture new models.
Togg has plans to list on a stock exchange
abroad, Gürcan Karakaş, its CEO, said in
November last year.
“Listing our shares has always been part of
our plans. But our primary target is a stock
market listing abroad,” he said at that time.
“We think we should do that on a large
stock exchange with our share in the
market at that time,” Karakaş said without
providing other details. The introduction
of Togg vehicles is expected to give a boost
to electric vehicles in Türkiye. Including
new models to be introduced by other
carmakers, electric vehicle sales in Türkiye
are expected to reach 40,000 units in
2023, which means the share of EVs in
total vehicle sales will climb to 7 percent.
A total of 7,733 electric vehicles were
sold in Türkiye last year, up 172 percent
from 2021, according to data from the
Automotive Distributors’ and Mobility
Association (ODMD). Electric vehicle s
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