TOGG Senior Manager Karakas said, “As of the end of last year, we completed the selection of our suppliers. 75% of these suppliers are from Turkey.”
Turkey’s Automobile Enterprise Group (TOGG) Senior Manager (CEO) Gurcan Karakas stated that they aim to form the core of a mobility ecosystem to be built around the car in the medium and long term.
Karakas gave information about the stage reached in domestic automobile studies at the March council meeting held with the video conference method of the Kocaeli Chamber of Industry:
Stating that he knows Kocaeli’s place in the automotive industry and that a new company to be established should be close to attraction centers, Karakas noted that they have chosen their geographical location in the Bilisim Vadisi due to their technology development infrastructure.
Stating that they are progressing in line with their goals and project plans in the new type of coronavirus (Covid-19) period, Karakas said, “Is there no minor problems? There are minor problems, but not of a size that will affect our project. We can overcome these minor problems with our team. The rules of the game for automotive are changing in the world. The main reason behind this is that customers’ expectations are changing. The reason for this is that the car turns into a smart device. A new living space is emerging as the car turns into a smart device. What can we do in our home, in our office? We will be able to do the same with the car that has transformed into a new living space.”
“We want to create a global brand whose intellectual and industrial property belongs to Turkey”
Referring to the changes in the world automotive industry, Karakas emphasized that the more agile, creative and open to cooperation will gain importance in the “new world”, not the big one.
Karakas pointed out that it is not possible for a company to manage the new technologies involved, and that companies that can organize all of them in the focus of the user can be successful.
Emphasizing that Turkey set out at the right place at the right time, Karakas continued as follows:
“When we started our project, we set out by planning a period of 15 years. This is a very classic way to define, create, grow, but what is important is export as a proof of sustainability. There are two cornerstones of the 15-year plan. The first is to create a global brand whose intellectual industrial property belongs to Turkey. In order to develop technology, you have to have the whole thing. After that, we can develop that technology by going into the details. We care about it being electric from the beginning. When designing from the very beginning, we care about our smart device to be globally competitive. We do not have such a big market as China. Therefore, we care about competition abroad from the very beginning. Automobile is not enough, if we only built automobiles, we would be in serious trouble with melting profits. Therefore, our goal is to form the core of a mobility ecosystem that will be built around the car in the medium and long term.”
“26% of our suppliers are companies operating in the Kocaeli region”
Expressing that they talked about the transaction, which has an important added value in Turkey, Karakas said, “We completed the selection of our suppliers as of the end of last year. 75% of these suppliers are from Turkey. If there is no technology yet or it does not have a very strategic importance, millions of pieces are produced in any part of the world and we supply them from abroad at a certain point if commercial competitiveness is not obvious. 26% of our suppliers are companies operating in the Kocaeli region.”
Talking about the “Turkey’s Automobile” models to be produced, Karakas continued his words as follows:
“We produce our battery with our vehicle in Turkey. What we mean by the battery pack here, we are not talking about the expression that everything will come and we will nail the case around it. What we do, we do it with the thought of how we can place this in our country in the long term by examining and researching in-depth. From the moment we hit the road, we will do the module here. We will take the cells and make the module, we will switch from module to battery pack, and the battery management system on it will be included. The agreement we have made will turn into a joint venture in the upcoming period, and one of the main items from the moment it turns into a joint venture is our country’s access to cell technology. In other words, the joint venture company to be established will be of a size that will have the intellectual property of the chemicals it will develop together after a certain capacity.”
“We have a serious contribution to the reverse brain drain”
Reminding that the construction initiation ceremony was held on the land allocated in Bursa Gemlik for the production of “Turkey’s Automobile” on July 18, Karakas explained that they first focused on the subject of ground reinforcement here.
He stated that they chose the ground reinforcement technology first with the guidance of 6 experts and said, “We are making a big investment. This should be done in all kinds of safety standards. We currently have 450 employees engaged in construction at our site. With the announcement of the building center, we also started the superstructure and it will reach 1500 employees.”
Pointing out that people are at the core of everything, Karakas emphasized that the cooperation model and organizational structure are important.
Referring to the importance of people to be an expert in their field, Karakas said, “Our total number of employees will be around 400, more than 800 at the end of the year. The issue we care about here is the rate of female employees. We are now at 24%. Are we satisfied? We are not, not at all. We are trying to increase this. Our 270 engineers are equipped with serious global experience abroad, 41% of our employees have masters and doctorate degrees. The last workplace of 22 of our employees was abroad. We have a serious contribution in terms of reverse brain drain. There is a simple reason for this. Especially in the world, there are not 15 projects like ours that you can work with within the framework of new trends, and there are not 10. For this reason, there is a platform where you can make your dreams come true and use your knowledge. For this reason, we see that we have a serious contribution.”
Source: AA / Translated by Irem Yildiz