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So far, only foreign carmakers use turkey as a production location and then ship the cars. The end is in sight: president erdogan wants to buy the first turkish car in 2021.
turkey plans to launch its first own car by 2021. President recep tayyip erdogan announced that in four years he wants to be the first to buy it "and pay for it".
Five companies to build the people’s car
A consortium of five turkish companies will develop and manufacture the car. It was unveiled yesterday at the presidential palace in ankara. The companies are expected to put a prototype on the road as early as 2019, followed two years later by a product ready for series production.
The consortium does not include a classic car manufacturer. Sure, there’s nothing like it in turkey yet either. BMC group, which builds armored army vehicles, and the two conglomerates anadolu holding and kiraca holding have the most experience in car manufacturing among the consortium members. Both are involved in car production in turkey via subsidiaries. Anadolu is building trucks and buses in Asia Minor together with the Japanese company isuzu.
The telecommunications group turkcell and the parent company of TV manufacturer vestel have probably been brought on board for the technology in the turkish car.
Experts are skeptical, shares plummet
Experts do not believe that a purely turkish car has a chance of success. The international automotive market is too competitive for that, and competitors from countries such as germany, the u.s. and japan are too powerful.
The shares of the companies involved collapsed immediately after the announcement. Vestel has lost around 15 percent of its value since tuesday. Anadolu isuzu, the subsidiary of anadolu holding, slid by around 13 percent and turkcell by five percent. BMC group and kiraca are not listed on the stock exchange.
The car market in turkey is booming
Even if the as yet unnamed turkish car is more a prestige project of the turkish president, the announcement is nevertheless not without a certain logic. Around 750.000 cars were sold in turkey last year, with foreign manufacturers the only ones to benefit.
Conversely, Turkey has long been an important production location for these companies. Daimler and MAN, for example, have buses and trucks manufactured here. Around 1.5 million cars rolled off the production line in turkey in 2016. It is therefore the 14. Largest automakers in the world – without a single car company.
Thus, the development of a turkish car might not be crowned with commercial success, but the country’s economy might be somewhat affected by this disproportion and motivate other turkish companies to enter the car market.
By the way, this is not the first time that turkey has tried to build its own car. In the 1960s, turkish companies developed the "devrim" of their car, revolution. Unfortunately, the car did not make it beyond prototype status.
Somewhat more successful were the ford otosan gas built models "anadol. they were produced and sold in turkey until 1986, but only in small numbers. At the beginning of the 1970s, for example, annual production was at its best 5.000 units. ten years later, they had already fallen to only about 400 cars.