Turkey's local electric car race ready for new round

ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency

The first stage of a local electric car production contest has been completed as 10 of 20 applicant consortiums were selected by the state institution sponsoring the project, technology minister said.

The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) will grant 100 percent in research and development support for electric car producers while the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology promised to buy 200 electric cars over five years, the ministry announced in February.

The minister Nihat Ergün announced July 28 that the first stage of TÜBİTAK’s Electric Car Technologies Development contest had been completed. The applications were done by the Project Executive Institution (PYK) and Electric Car Production Institution (AÜK) consortiums formed by universities, public and private institutions. The PYKs will do research and development for developing design, battery, electric motor and vehicle control systems as the AÜKs will produce a local electric car using these developed components, he said.

The 20 applications included automobile, bus and light commercial vehicle projects, Ergün said. The projects were examined in financial, technical and legal aspects by commissions in which academics and experts participated. TÜBİTAK eliminated 10 applicant projects and approved 10 applications, which won the right to apply to the second stage by December. TÜBİTAK will determine the winning projects in the final stage.

The minister said the supported projects would complete the prototype vehicles in a maximum of four years, and then producer institutions would start serial production. The vehicles will have a globally competitive price and quality, he said. TÜBİTAK will transfer its intellectual property rights to the vehicles to a producing institution if there is a deal to produce the vehicles in Turkey for five years. Ergün added that incentives would become effective in the state’s purchasing of local electric cars.