A Truly Globalist-y Story from Turkey, with German Connections

At a time when all the focus on the challenges for the European – and, in particular, German – car industry is on the Chinese and their EVs entering the EU market, Handelsblatt reporters have uncovered a true gem of cross-border learning and people exchanges – the launch of a competitive Turkish EV from Togg (“Turkey’s Automobile Development Group”).

The effort, which is of course a long-time ambition of Turkey’s President Erdogan, has been spearheaded by Gürcan Karakas, a man who had originally been recruited in the early 1990s by the world’s largest automotive supplier, Germany-based Bosch, from a researcher position in mechanical engineering at the Technical University in Ankara.

After going on to an impressive career at Bosch, Karaks decided in 2018 to join the Turkish automotive group Togg to head up the development of a modern electric car.

As chief designer for the Togg models, Karakas brought in Murat Günak, who had previously been chief designer at Volkswagen and designed cars for Mercedes.

Alongside the preparations for the EV rollout, Togg invested €100 million to set up more than 1,000 charging points in Turkey. Karakas, steeped in the traditions of German efficiency throughout much of his career, is now left wondering why German car manufacturers have not similarly managed to establish their own nationwide charging network in Germany.

Now that the car has also been launched in Germany, you may wonder how the Turkish manufacturer can provide for servicing its EVs there. The answer contains no surprise: According to the report, he has secured his former long-time employer Bosch for that task.