Turkey to allocate $3.7B for first indigenous car

By Yucel Velioglu

DUZCE, Turkey (AA) - Turkey will allocate €3.2 billion ($3.7 billion) for its first domestically-produced car, Science, Industry and Technology Minister Faruk Ozlu said on Friday.

"The basic parameters of the project were shaped. We will invest €3.2 billion. There will be a facility that has a capacity of producing 200,000 cars. There were five models of cars. As we thought since the beginning, the car will be electric one," Ozlu said, in a live interview with private news channel TGRT Haber.

Ozlu said the project will have a contribution of around €50 billion ($58.8 billion) to the gross national product in the long term.

"Within this project, we will provide directly 4,000 and indirectly 20,000 jobs," he added.

The minister said they will catch the fancy of middle and upper classes, adding: "We are mostly thinking of a car in segments B and C. It will be cheaper than peers. We aim it to be at least five percent cheaper than its peers. We aim to produce a car that will be more qualified than its peers."

Last November, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the prototype of the first domestically produced car -- expected to be produced in Ankara -- would be ready in 2019 and enter market in 2021.

"The place is not certain yet. Our aim is to unveil the prototype of the domestic car in 2019 and want to present it for sale in 2021," Ozlu said.

A partnership agreement to create the country's first indigenous car brand was signed on May 31.

The manufacturing company was named Turkey's Automobile Initiative Group. Five local firms -- Anadolu Group, BMC, Kok Group, Turkcell, and Zorlu Holding with 19 percent of shares each -- and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) with 5 percent of shares will jointly lead the firm.