TOGG and the Türkiye Century

Last weekend was quite busy for Türkiye. On Friday, the statement about the vision document titled “The Century of Türkiye” was announced by President Erdoğan and the following day, Türkiye's car TOGG was unveiled.

Last Friday, Türkiye witnessed an important event. Details regarding the Türkiye Century vision document, in which President Erdoğan explained the details, were shared with the public. When examining Erdogan's speech on the Türkiye Century, we come across certain important details.

Erdogan sees the Türkiye Century as a matter of production, development, and welfare. He describes it as a roadmap for the steps that Türkiye will take toward becoming a global political and economic power. He talks about building a Türkiye that has steeled itself against crises and threats, as well as advanced technology and high value-added production. With a unifying and inclusive approach, he calls on all segments of society to implement these steps.

Speaking of ready-made high technology, let's take a look at TOGG right away. After a long wait, Türkiye achieved a first and brought TOGG, a car whose intellectual property rights belong to Türkiye, to the production pipeline. This is an important issue in many respects because the development in question means the introduction of a domestic product that is more than an automobile and is defined as an “innately electric smart device.”

Türkiye imports a huge number of automobiles. This has a significant negative impact on the current account deficit. Additionally, significant sums of license fees have to be transferred abroad for other domestically produced cars. In this respect, it is obvious that a car whose intellectual property rights belong to Türkiye will benefit the economy in many ways. It is possible to give more technical examples of TOGG's economic returns, but my main point is different.

Together with TOGG, Türkiye has made a similar breakthrough in technology by producing a smart device that meets the requirements of the era. I describe it as technology because TOGG is not a simple automobile, but as I mentioned above, it is described as a "smart device". This also represents the self-confidence that President Erdoğan expressed while explaining his vision for the Türkiye Century.

While TOGG excites a large chunk of society, it is also the target of some criticism as always, the most frequently-levied one takes aim at TOGG's domesticity rate. Although I find these criticisms unfounded, let me make a brief reminder as the subject has been a topic of discussion these past few days. TOGG is a smart vehicle with domestic intellectual property rights, design, and engineering. Of course, some parts may have been imported in terms of both price advantage and access to technology. However, this does not justify the criticisms leveled at TOGG. Today, so many parts that go into vehicles manufactured by  American, German, or French automobile brands are produced in different countries halfway across the world. In fact, some critical engine parts produced in Türkiye are now included in foreign-brand cars in the luxury segment. In this respect, the fact that some of TOGG’s parts are imported does not mean that the brand was not domestically manufactured.