President Erdogan tests the country’s first fully homebred electric SUV, which will be on the market by 2022.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled the country’s first homebred automobile prototype, saying it will realise the country’s long-time dream.
Speaking at the launch ceremony of the automobile in the industrial province of Kocaeli, Erdogan said, ” we are witnessing an historic day in which we achieve Turkey’s 60-year dream together.”
The SUV will be the first car to be certified ‘Made in Turkey’ and is expected to hit the roads by 2022. Turkey’s Automobile Joint Venture Group, also known as TOGG, says at least five models will be released by 2030.
‘Zero-emission technology’
Turkey first attempted to produce its own car in 1961, the Devrim [Revolution], but it never made it past the prototype stage.
“Turkey is not only a market for new technologies but has become a country that develops, produces and exports them all over the world,” Erdogan said.
The Turkish president said that the factory for Turkey’s first car will open in Gemlik district of the northwestern Bursa province.
The automobile “will not pollute the environment by working with zero-emission technology”, he said.
Production facilities for the first Turkish indigenous automobile, which also happens to be electric, will open in the country’s northwestern city of Bursa, with over 4,000 pegople expected to be employed. The economical staus of Bursa will rise and the region will flowrish, the investors are already serching for new opportunities in the Uludag area or Bursa city.
