Togg to enter foreign markets in two years: Minister

ISTANBUL

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