If you play for the first SUVs from Togg, you can get one earlier

Togg electric car

Visually, the model is reminiscent of the Ford Edge or the Jeep Grand Cherokee model.

(Photo: TOGG)

Istanbul Potential buyers of Turkey’s first electric car still have to be patient. The start of sales of the electric SUV from the manufacturer Togg was actually planned for the first quarter of 2023. However, delays caused by the effects of the pandemic have ensured that the third quarter of 2023 is now considered realistic.

Togg CEO Gürcan Karakas has been working towards the start of deliveries for four years. And has thought about how he can keep the expectations of the customers high. These include new details on production and a competition in which buyers can play for the first vehicles to be delivered.

It has long been clear that the demand for the Togg SUV will be higher than the supply. This year, the capacity of the plant near Istanbul should be just enough for 20,000 vehicles. The Turkish government alone has announced that it will order up to 30,000 models. Karakas makes a virtue out of necessity, the sales process should be “gamified”.

Order groceries in the supermarket from the car

How the games will look exactly is not yet known. “We will give participants different missions to complete,” explains Karakas. Those who do particularly well are more likely to order the car than others.

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The trick is that the games should already run on a digital platform that is also used in the vehicles themselves. Interested parties are thus already integrated into the Toggs brand world.

The platform called “Trumore” should be launched in the coming weeks. According to the company, Togg owners will use this software to control several applications in the future. For example, users should be able to place orders with the Turkish supermarket chain Migros via Trumore, which will then be delivered to their home with the company’s own delivery service.

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Trumore is also “a platform that earns money for its users, drives them around, maintains them and is constantly evolving,” said Karakas a few days ago at the CES electronics trade fair. However, he did not give details of how this should happen.

Behind the electric car start-up is a consortium of four Turkish companies and business organizations that have invested a total of several billion US dollars in the joint project. The vehicle manufacturers Anadolu Holding and BMC, the tech service provider Turkcell and the electronics group Zorlu are involved. In addition, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) holds a stake in Togg.

Conflicting information on the start of sales, none on the price

The Turkish electric car is one of the most ambitious projects in the automotive industry in recent years. In the shadow of severe economic turbulence in Turkey, the former Bosch manager Karakas developed a model within just four years that is intended to catapult the Togg into the league of innovative automobile manufacturers. The manager hired the Italian company Pininfarina for the design.

The car manager, who has had a career at Bosch for 27 years, tries not to set expectations too high. “Nobody expects an electric car from Turkey,” he told the Handelsblatt at the end of 2020. But even then he had made it clear: “We want to be globally competitive right from the start.”

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There has been conflicting information about the start of sales for a long time. Turkey’s industry minister said last August that the first Turkish electric cars could be on the roads at the beginning of the new year.

Even then, the Togg headquarters were surprised by this announcement. At the CES, Karakas openly stated that the first cars could only be completed in the spring. Deliveries could therefore begin in the third quarter.

Despite the growing competition, the Togg boss remains silent about the price. With the expectations that he stirs up among customers, Karakas is now also putting his company and himself under pressure to succeed.

More: Everything about the Turkish electric car

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