Turkey's first local electric armored vehicle unveiled

SAKARYA - Anadolu Agency

Top Turkish defense company Otokar has unveiled the Akrep II (Scorpion), Turkey’s first electric armored vehicle.

“The Akrep II is taking Turkey’s first steps into the field of electric, hybrid and autonomous military vehicles,” Serdar Görgüç, Otokar’s general manager, told a press conference on April 24.

Görgüç said the Akrep II will be on display in Istanbul next week at the 14th International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF’19).

“Combining the advantages of greater maneuverability and a low acoustic and thermal signature than traditional armored vehicles, Akrep II has an engine capable of meeting all the requirements of armies all over the world,” he added.

Otokar, Turkey’s largest private defense company owned by Koç Group, was launched in 1963. It is operating with over 2,000 employees at the factory built on a 552,000-square-meter land in the western province of Sakarya.

The company produces buses for public transportation, semi-trailers for transportation and logistics industry and tracked armored vehicles and tactical armored vehicles for the defense industry.

It is the Turkish Armed Forces’ leading supplier and exporters of land platforms and the main contractor in the “Design and Prototype Development Project” of ALTAY, the national battle tank of Turkey.

The company’s turnover was 1.7 billion Turkish Liras last year and its net profit increased by 65 percent to 164 million liras.

Otokar’s exports jumped 99 percent to $211 million and the share of export revenues in the company’s overall turnover increased to 65 percent from 31 percent.