Turkish e-car maker Togg: competition for German manufacturers?

Created: 01/11/2022, 02:14 PM

From: Sebastian Oppenheimer

The Turkish manufacturer Togg wants to stir up the European automotive world with e-vehicles.

The company is run by a former Bosch manager.

Las Vegas / Istanbul - Of course, Togg could have gone to the International Motor Show in Munich with its stage premiere or presented itself to the general public at a major event in its home city of Istanbul. But the first Turkish automaker wanted more - and so there was a big hit at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. Even the ongoing pandemic did not prevent the tech Turks from their plan to show themselves and the “Advanced Smart Mobility Ecosystem” they developed. Togg, what sounds like the latest high-tech accessories from Apple or Samsung, stands for a new age. For decades, cars, commercial vehicles, buses and trucks have been manufactured in Turkey - but only by foreign manufacturers. That worried not only the well-known car-savvy population,but also the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (67), who has been doing everything for years to crown the domestic auto industry with his own brand, as reported by 24auto.de.

At the CES in Las Vegas, the Turkish car maker Togg presented an electric hatchback © press-inform

Turkish e-car maker Togg: competition for German manufacturers?

Togg is backed by a powerful Turkish consortium made up of the renowned companies Anadolu Grubu Holding A.Ş., BMC Otomotiv Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş., Turkcell İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş., Zorlu Holding A.Ş.

and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey.

The partners each have a 19 percent stake in the company - the remaining five percent remain with Togg itself. Since it was officially founded in 2018, they have been headed by Mehmet Gürcan Karakaş, who has been deeply interwoven with the international auto industry for decades.

Before moving to Togg, Karakaş was responsible for the electric drives for the bulk supplier Bosch.

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Turkish e-car manufacturer Togg: Two battery sizes to start with

While Togg unveiled an electric hatchback sedan at CES 2022 in Las Vegas, the new automaker's first vehicle will be a crossover in early 2023, which is initially due to hit the domestic market. “At the end of 2022 we will launch our first series vehicle. After completing the homologation tests, our first vehicle in the C-segment, the SUV, will hit the market in the first quarter of 2023, "says Mehmet Gürcan Karakaş," it will be the first all-electric SUV made by a non-traditional manufacturer on the European market Continent is produced. After that, a sedan and a hatchback model in the C segment will go into production on the same platform. With the subsequent B-SUV and C-MPV models, our product range will consist of five models with the same DNA and the same platform.“To start with, there are two battery sizes for ranges of 300 and 500 kilometers and a choice of 200 or 400 hp. The appearance of the vehicles comes from Pininfarina with the help of the former Volkswagen designer Murat Günak. (Car manufacturers seven out: Why many model variants are disappearing)

The Turkish car maker Togg is headed by the former Bosch manager Mehmet Gürcan Karakaş.

© press-inform

Turkish e-car manufacturer Togg: Construction work on the factory has been going on since mid-2020

Construction work has been underway on the new factory near Gemlik in the north-west of the country since mid-2020, where the first Togg models are due to roll off the production line from the end of this year. In a first expansion step, the production has an annual capacity of 175,000 vehicles. Togg wants to produce a total of one million vehicles in five different segments by 2030 - but the start is already harder than ever, because Turkey has so far had nothing to do with electric cars and the German premium manufacturers in particular have a reputation on the Bosphorus like Donnerhall. Togg wants to soften that with solid technology and a great deal of local patriotism. (Mercedes Vision EQXX: electric study promises extreme range)

What could still work in Turkey itself should be a real Herculean task in Europe, especially against the established competition and the import brands from Korea, China and Japan.

Like almost all new car brands, Togg wants to do without classic car dealers.

Distribution takes place over the Internet, while brand stores are supposed to ensure image and awareness.

In the long term, Togg wants to earn its money in a complete ecosystem and has already brought a large number of cooperation partners on board.

With a view to the 2030s, the car will become a means to an end - if the project works.