Togg: ‘First Turkey, then Europe’

That Togg, that stands for Turkiye’nin Otomobili Girişim Grubu (Turkey’s Automobile Joint Venture Group), making its first appearance at CES in Las Vegas, is not without reason. The brand prefers to present itself as a technology company than as an ‘old school’ car manufacturer. Togg will fully concentrate on making electric cars and will do so on its own land. The company receives a lot of support from the Turkish government at the start, of course with the hope of a lot of economic growth if it becomes a success. But despite the fact that it is the first Turkish car manufacturer, one does not exactly start without experience. In any case, the CEO Gürcan Karakas has worked for Bosch, the well-known supplier, for 30 years. And not without reason, because Turkey is bursting with car factories. Renault, Ford and Toyota, for example, make cars there, which makes for a large Hub when it comes to logistics and suppliers who know their way around. In the middle of the existing factories in the coastal town of Gemlik, Togg opened its factory in 2020.

The first production car should roll off the production line there at the end of 2022, and the car should be delivered from Q1 2023. It will be a C-segment SUV, fully electric of course. A sedan on the same platform then quickly follows, followed by a fastback similar to the concept car unveiled in Las Vegas. The sedan and SUV should have a range of 500 WLTP kilometers and power up to 400 hp is promised. Both the platform and the battery packs are completely developed in Turkey. Siro Silk Road Clean Energy Solutions, a partnership with Farasis Energy, makes the batteries for the brand.

Togg CEO Gürcan Karakas

The launch is first only for the Turkey itself. “We first have to prove ourselves in our home market,” says Karakas. “If you can’t hold your own as a brand in your own country, then you don’t have much to do in the rest of the world. But of course we have every confidence. As soon as we have a good base here, we will look further, starting with Northern Europe, where people are always open to new brands and new technology. This is followed by Central Europe, which is of course an extremely important market.” However, we should not expect traditional dealers from TOGG. “You can already see the shift to online sales, whether or not in combination with a few flagship stores,” says Karakas. “I have worked in the aftermarket world. Most dealers’ margins are in maintenance and then there is a sharp decline with electric cars. So we are not going to build something that will no longer be needed.” In any case, the fact that one does not old school technique needing to leave it behind, according to him, is a great advantage. “We can develop much faster than traditional car manufacturers because we have no ICE history. We don’t have to maintain anything, we don’t have to recoup investments. In the ancient world, engine and gearbox were the main techniques. The engineers who worked on it were the most important and they subsequently grew into higher positions. That has consequences for the way of thinking. We don’t have that kind of ballast.”

How the brand wants to position itself is not yet entirely clear, the only thing the CEO wants to say is that the quality and homologation requirements for its models are different for Europe than for China, for example, wherever the brand wants to go. But due to “tight cost policy”, the new electric SUV will not be more expensive than an equivalent petrol car, according to him. Since there is a boost in bpm on petrol cars in the Netherlands, that should work out favorably here. But even then, a midi SUV from Kia costs less than one from Audi, so we’ll have to wait and see how TOGG exactly wants to market itself. It is clear that the brand is very much aiming for interaction with the driver in combination with autonomous driving. Blockchain technology is used to pay for the car, but also to arrange costs en route. Think tolls. “We are building mobility solutions with a user-centric business model that is based on data. Solutions that provide a much more comfortable mobility experience in the ecosystem and that grow around us smart product”, as he calls his car. At the beginning of 2023, we will be able to see what that means in practice.