It’s full production mode ahead for Turkey’s Car Industry, as plans for the construction of their first domestic car manufacturing site was approved recently by the Environment & Urbanization Ministry.
Completing a journey, that over the years has proved to be complex and very complicated, five of the largest Industry giants finally came together and created a new venture group to make it possible, which they now refer to as The Automobile Joint Venture Group. The new site will be built in the North-West part of the country, and though it will cost $3.7bn to build, it will be a massive boost to the economy in the long run as it will provide jobs for more than 4,300 staff and will be capable of producing around 175,000 vehicles per year.
With a huge emphasis on the environment and with an upsurge in demand for electric vehicles the factory will mainly focus on 2 models, one of which will be an SUV, and the other a Sedan, and they are expected to start working on these from 2022, with an estimated figure of 1 million electric vehicles having been produced by 2032. Other models are also in the proposed range, and will make their way to market, based on feedback from the SUV & Sedan.
Currently all of the automotive exports to come out of Turkey, are for other car manufacturers, and the city of Bursa tops that list with almost $2bn netted in the first quarter of this year, and though they certainly don’t want this to stop, the new facility will not only give people the option to buy a ‘homegrown’ product, but it will further enhance Turkey’s image as a growing super power.
What’s highly encouraging for Turkey’s automotive Industry, is that throughout the Covid-19 outbreak whilst the rest of Europe’s Industry sales suffered, Turkey’s soared by a huge 44%, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. In terms of sales figures, this equates to around 99,630 cars sold in total, between January, February & March.
