ISTANBUL, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the country's first car manufacturing plant and rolled out the first domestically-produced car on Saturday, as the republic celebrates the 99th anniversary of its founding.
"As the foremost producer of commercial vehicles in Europe and one of the world's leading automobile exporters, not having a domestic car brand had long wrenched our hearts," Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of the factory of Togg, or Türkiye's Automobile Joint Venture Group.
"Since I was prime minister, I kept urging people about this. I knew there were capable people in this nation, and finally, it is realized," he said.
Togg's first model is a C-SUV electric vehicle, for which pre-sales will start in February. According to the state-run Anadolu Agency, the model is designed by the Italian Pininfarina design company.
Local media reported that production plans are already in place for the incoming SUV, sedan, C-hatchback, B-SUV, and B-MPV models.
Togg, a brand officially established in 2018, was founded as a joint venture by domestic industrial giants Anadolu Group, BMC Türkiye, Turkcell, Zorlu Holding, and the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges.
The factory is built on 1.2 million square meters of land in the robust northwestern industrial city of Bursa and is expected to produce 175,000 vehicles annually, according to Anadolu Agency.
Türkiye has not produced a domestic automobile since a prototype was canceled in 1961 before it could be mass-produced.
