Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Saturday that the locally-made electric car "TOGG" "will decorate the streets of many countries of the world in the coming period."
Erdogan said - in a speech he delivered during his participation in the opening ceremony of the local car factory campus in the Turkish state of Bursa - "A Tog car, God willing, will decorate the roads of many countries of the world in the coming period as a prestigious Turkish brand."
"TOG is the name of the project that made us all enjoy building this common dream for a strong future for our country. We are witnessing the realization of a 60-year dream with the first Togh car that came out of serial production," he added.
The Turkish president expressed his belief that the price of the "Tog" car will be announced next February, in parallel with the start of the pre-sale, noting that citizens' purchase requests for this car will start in the same period.
He pointed out that this car will run on Turkey's roads at the end of the first quarter of 2023, and that the "Tog" factory will produce 175,000 cars annually when it reaches work with full capacity.
The group of companies supervising the manufacture of the Turkish car consists of Anadolu Group, BMC, Turkcell Telecom, Zorlu Holding and Koc Group.
Erdogan touched on the vision of "Turkey's century", which he announced on Friday, stressing that the factory and the car are among the first images of this vision.
He stressed that the local car "TOG" is "a source of pride and common pride for 85 million citizens all over Turkey."
He explained that his country's goals are great, its vision is broad, and its faith is complete, indicating that the way to gain and maintain power is through self-sufficiency and "not be in need of the devoid of chivalry," as he put it.
In this regard, he praised Turkey's achievements in various fields, especially the defense industries, the automotive industry, energy and health.
Erdogan explained that "TOG" is a national project in which Turkey has 100% intellectual and industrial property rights, and that the factory producing it will provide one million cars until 2030 and will contribute more than 50 billion dollars in national income, and 7 billion dollars in reducing the current account deficit.
He pointed to an agreement reached with one of the world's largest companies to produce lithium-ion batteries in Turkey for use in the car, noting that the foundation stone will be laid soon in this context to build a battery factory in a land adjacent to the "Tog" factory.
He also stressed that there is great interest from international companies towards Turkey with regard to investing in electric cars, noting that the government is ready to launch a project to build more than 1,500 fast charging units for cars in 81 Turkish states.
Erdogan indicated that "TOG", in turn, will offer 1,000 charging devices to service in more than 600 points throughout Turkey.