Türkiye bets on Togg to give its car industry electric edge

On the shores of the Sea of Marmara, a grey and turquoise factory built at breakneck speed is churning out electric cars by the hundreds.

Türkiye is hoping its first major electric carmaker will put the country in the driving seat of the automotive industry.

Inside the plant, robot arms weld the passenger compartment of its first SUV, the T10X, which launched last year. After painting, the parts are then sent for assembly, before finally passing through a luminescent tunnel to be scrutinised by workers for imperfections.

The batteries, made in partnership with Chinese manufacturer Farasis Energy, are assembled in a next-door building.

It takes an hour for the plant to produce 20 vehicles.

"Last year, we produced 20,000 vehicles without any loss. Tesla produced only 2,000 in their first year," a production manager told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The manager also praised the plant's "highly educated" workers, 40 percent of whom are women.

In half a century, the Marmara region around Istanbul has become one of the leading centres of the world's automobile industry.

Major carmakers including Fiat and Renault opened plants there at the beginning of the 1970s, with others like Ford, Toyota and Hyundai following, taking advantage of Türkiye's position at the crossroads between Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

 Car horn in outer space 

"They initially invested to supply the local market, which for a long time was protected by tariffs," independent consultant Levent Taylan told AFP.

But after the European Union-Türkiye Customs Union agreement came into force in 1995, opening the European market to cars made in Türkiye, exports revved up.

"Today the Turkish...