100 percent local car ‘not plausible’

SAKARYA – Anadolu Agency

An employee works at the Toyota plant in Sakarya, Turkey. Toyota Turkey CEO Orhan Özer says 100 percent local car can’t be produced. REUTERS Photo

While one of Turkey’s 2023 targets is producing a local car, but the globalized world and its imports in the automotive sector does not allow producing a car using 100 percent local sources.

Turkey has enough technological infrastructure and accumulation to produce a local car, but there is not any local production in the automotive sector in the world that is 100 percent local due to importing auto parts, Toyota Turkey CEO Orhan Özer said in an interview. Even the countries that have automobile brands do not produce 100 percent in local cars, he noted.

“2023 target is to take place among the world’s ten largest economies in the 100th year of the Republic. Such a country in the economic top ten list can produce its own automobile brand, it isn’t an unachievable target,” he said, adding the fully local manufacturing was not currently possible.

However, he said Turkey can produce its own local car by importing some parts because as long as the brand was Turkish, it would render the cars local.

“The majority of the car will be produced in Turkey and some parts can be imported. The important thing is the produced car has the country’s brand,” he said.

The Turkish government said in May that the state could participate in a local car manufacturing project with a “golden share” in order to encourage the sector and investors. The government has been showing its determination to manufacture a local car in Turkey.