The groundbreaking ceremony of the construction of Turkey’s first domestic car plant was held Saturday in northwestern Bursa province with the attendance of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Speaking at the ceremony, Erdoğan said the construction will finish in 18 months and the plant will be opened in the last quarter of 2022.
He noted that they have started the construction of a “huge production complex with different facilities that will radically change the perception of a factory in people’s minds.”
“With our product range, technology, business model, and suppliers, we (Turkey) are ready to be a major player,” the president said.
Erdoğan noted that polls showed that the approval rate for the domestic car project among Turkish citizens stood at more than 95%.
“I believe that this project, as a great symbol of the innovative vision of Turkey, will be an inspiration for the younger generations,” he added.
The country’s Environment and Urbanization Ministry has approved the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the car plant initially at the beginning of June. The factory is expected to cost around TL 22 billion ($3.7 billion) and will have the capacity to produce an average of 175,000 vehicles per year once the work is completed.
In June 2018, five industrial giants – the Anadolu Group, BMC, Kök Group, Turkcell and Zorlu Holding – as well as the umbrella organization the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) joined hands to create the Automobile Joint Venture Group (TOGG), a consortium to manufacture the domestic car.
The country’s long journey to produce a fully homegrown car came to an end on Dec. 27 last year as it unveiled the prototypes in a grand ceremony in the northwestern town of Gebze.
Erdoğan unveiled prototypes of a sport utility vehicle (SUV) and a sedan, both fully electric and C-segment models. TOGG will make five different models – an SUV, sedan, C-hatchback, B-SUV and B-MPV – through 2030 and will own its intellectual and industrial property rights.
