Turkey to bet $15 billion on EV production support

Turkey wants to become a significant player in producing batteries for electric cars. That is what President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced. To this end, it has launched an ambitious 15 billion-dollar public subsidy program.

“We have made battery production a priority for our auto industry to maintain its competitiveness,” said Erdogan, who wants to make his country “a regional production base with a capacity of 80 gigawatt-hours from 2030”.

Ambitious subsidy program

With his plan, Erdogan wants to lure investments in new-generation vehicles to Turkey through research, development, and engineering activities that should also boost Turkish exports.

Turkey will offer investors a 4.5 billion dollar subsidy program for battery production. Furthermore, another 5 billion dollar subsidy program will increase EV production in Turkey to at least one million units per year. With another 5 billion dollar subsidy program for chip production, the total subsidy for the EV sector is 15 billion dollars.

Furthermore, Erdogan also promised that half of salary costs would be covered for investments in Turkey by companies that are among the world’s thousand most significant in research and development. In addition, the Turkish president also announced subsidies for the development of solar and wind energy technologies totaling 4,2 billion dollars.

Avoid EU import duties

In early June, Turkey signed another contract with BYD, the world leader in selling EVs, to open a factory in the country. The plant would create 5,000 jobs and invest one billion dollars.

According to Turkey’s official press agency, Anatoly, at least five other Chinese carmakers are considering opening plants in Turkey after BYD. Turkish electric carmaker TOGG and China’s Farasis Energy also signed a partnership for battery production.

Turkey relies mainly on its geographical location and its customs agreement with the European Union to attract Chinese investment. Now that Chinese cars have recently been subject to import duties to gain access to the European market, Turkey relies mainly on its geographical location and its customs agreement with the European Union to attract Chinese investments.