‘Türkiye aims to become major player in EV, battery production’

ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that they aim to make Türkiye one of the world’s leading actors in electric vehicle and battery production.

“With the interest triggered by the Togg hitting the road, we march on the path to having a rapidly developing electric vehicle market,” Erdoğan said in a ceremony for the opening of carmaker Ford Otosan’s Yeniköy Factory after it redesigned.

The president noted that Türkiye climbed to 13th spot in global auto production from 15th spot over five years.

“We have achieved this despite successive global crises. Last year, our automobile exports had a foreign trade surplus of over $9 billion,” he said.

They attach special importance to the investments that will enable Türkiye to have a say in the electric and hybrid vehicle production, Erdoğan added.

“As a country which has already reached a production capacity of 70 gigawatts per hour in electric vehicle batteries, we are determined to become the battery production base of Europe by 2030 at the latest," the president said.

In the first ten months of 2023, nearly 49,000 electric vehicles were sold in Türkiye, marking a staggering 890 percent increase from a year ago. Electric vehicles accounted for 6.5 percent of all sales in the market in January-October.

In October alone, electric vehicle sales soared 1,014 percent year-on-year to more than 9,800, according to the latest data from the Automotive Distributors’ and Mobility Association (ODMD).

From January to October, a total of 9,171 Togg brand vehicles were sold, while Tesla delivered 10,700 cars.

Erdoğan also reiterated that the government’s priority is to permanently reduce inflation to single digits and to bring it down to 4.7 percent by the end of 2028.

“We will also facilitate legal processes in the fields of investment, trade and finance in order to attract direct investments to our country,” he said.