TOGG preparing for world stage
Taylan Özgür Dil - ISTANBUL
Türkiye’s global technology brand, TOGG, is counting down the days to unload its first car in the C-SUV segment, which it defines as a “smart device.”
Within the scope of the ceremony to be held on Oct. 29 with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the opening of TOGG’s production facilities in Gemlik will take place.
With the opening, the C-SUV model, which has been produced in the prototype workshop and carried out various road tests, will be fully ready for mass production. Soon after, the TOGG C-SUV will be sent to accredited testing centers to certify its readiness to hit the road.
TOGG’s fully electric C-SUV model, which will receive approval documents after homologation tests that will take about five months, is scheduled to go on sale in March 2023.
After the C-SUV, the fully electric Sedan in the C segment will be offered for sale in 2025. This model will be followed by C-Hatchback, B-SUV and C-MPV models respectively, thus completing TOGG’s product range.
Aiming to produce these five different 100 percent electric models, which will be produced on a single platform, by 2030, TOGG aims to reach a production capacity of 175,000 units per year at the end of seven years and to unload a total of 1 million vehicles from the bands.
In the meantime, the Gemlik facility, which was built on an open area of 1.2 million square meters, will employ 4,300 people with its annual capacity of 175,000 units.
The facility in Gemlik will not be just a production facility. A user experience center will also serve customers at the facilities called “Gemlik Campus.” Consumers will be able to experience TOGG’s technologies and products for the mobility ecosystem in this area.
On the other hand, M. Gürcan Karakaş, the CEO of TOGG, said, “A brand that is not successful in its country cannot be successful abroad either. For this reason, we are in our country in the first 18 months.”
As he emphasized, the C-SUVs produced will first meet with consumers in Türkiye. This period can be reduced by three more months depending on the demand, that is, exports can be realized after 15 months. In exports, countries such as Germany and France will be targeted in the first place.
TOGG’s sales method in the domestic market will be different from the classical dealership system and from online only sales.
At this point, TOGG’s positioning as a technology company gives important clues. It is not clear yet, but a model may be developed to create experience centers, just like Apple does, where users will be able to contact the vehicle and initiate the order process.
“We are currently considering a structuring in the form of an experience center that does not exist in the world,” Karakaş said.
“We are not thinking about just a traditional dealer or just online sales, but rather an experience center where both are included and blended. Each city can have one of these. Again, plans may change depending on the density.”
