Turkish consortium reveals plans for 3 new EV models
Three electric cars made in Turkey have been announced by the Turkish Automobile Joint Venture Group, a consortium of the country’s largest manufactures and companies tasked with setting up domestic car production by the government.
The announcement is an update on plans that had been set in motion under the guise of controversial president Erdogan last November and the project is coordinated with the Science, Industry and Technology Ministry and Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) and in partnership with Anadolu Group, BMC, Kıraça, Turkcell and Zorlu.
The decision to include three electric cars comes along with the plan for one common platform. At the moment, project team members are undertaking research abroad and further customer surveys are planned as well.
“We are aware that Turkey’s automobile project requires long-term investment planning. We are preparing our plans for a three-phase investment move of around 15 years,” a statement by the consortium read.
A first prototype is planned for 2019 with serial production to begin by 2021. The first market is the local consumers but the consortium hopes to be able to export the electric cars in the future. The statement reads: “In the second stage, we aim to make electric Turkish vehicles an international brand not only in our country, but also in the world market. We run a comprehensive process to determine the key managers of our company, which we plan to establish in the coming months, while also carrying out all of our planning work.”
The consortium will not open pre-orders yet and has in fact not even decided on where to set up a production facility, apart from it having to be in Turkey. The Joint Venture said a decision will be made following the completion of technical and financial analyses.
Back in November when the JV was established, it planned an EV with range-extender based on NEVS Saab. If said idea is still on the table remains unclear as it has not been included in this latest statement.
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