Togg to introduce new model next year: Minister

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s first electric carmaker Togg will introduce a new Sedan model to the market toward the end of 2024, Industry and Technology Minister Fatih Kacır has said.

Every one and a half or two years, new models will be launched, Kacır stated in a televised interview on private broadcaster CNN Türk.

“Currently, there are more than 1,000 Togg vehicles on the roads. This will increase to more than 23,000 vehicles in 2023,” he said.

The minister added that the network of charging stations should be expanded to facilitate the use of electric cars.

“A new market is emerging… We have launched work to install charging stations in all 81 provinces [in Türkiye],”

According to the minister, there are more than 1,780 charging stations across the country.

“We aim to increase the number of those charging stations to 250,000 by 2030.”

He reiterated that new investments in the automotive sector could be announced.

“Volkswagen’s decision was political. We keep our doors open [to VW], but we are in talks with other companies from carmakers from Europe and the Far East,” Kacır said.

The German carmaker had abandoned its plan to build a factory in Manisa with a more than $1 billion investment.

“Türkiye should be a pioneering country in electric vehicles,” the minister said.

Earlier this month, Kacır said that Togg would produce a total of 1 million vehicles by 2032.

Some 97 percent of those vehicles will be sold to consumers while the public institutions will buy the remaining 3 percent, he said.

In the six months to June, 13,294 electric vehicles were sold in Türkiye, marking a 488 percent increase from the same period of 2022, showed the data from the Automotive Distributors’ and Mobility Association (ODMD).

EVs accounted for 3.1 percent of all vehicle sales in the first half.