Togg

During the 2010s, Turkey's President Erdoğan called for an initiative to produce a Turkish automobile brand. In 2017, Erdoğan announced the creation of Togg and its participants.[1] The Boston Consulting Group was tasked with analyzing the feasibility and build-up of the new company.[2]

On 27 December 2019, the first introduction was made in Gebze.[3] President Erdoğan unveiled two models, one SUV and one sedan during the event.[4] The first two prototypes were produced in Italy by Pininfarina, but at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show Togg presented their new car designed by Murat Günak who is a well known designer in Europe, one of his notable work is the first Mercedes-Benz C-class. The Togg manufacturing plant is in Gemlik, Bursa,[5] where the ground breaking ceremony was held on 18 July 2020.[6]

The two models of the Togg Turkish national car unveiled in December 2019 are both all-electric vehicles with 300 and 500 km (190 and 310 mi) range options. Both cars will have an eight-year battery warranty and level 2 autonomous driving assistance.[7]

Haralar in the Gemlik district of Bursa Province was chosen as the production plant site. It is part of 400 ha (990 acres) of land owned by the Turkish Armed Forces. The site was preferred for its proximity to a seaport, a free-trade zone and to suppliers. The construction cost of the production plant is budgeted at ₺ 22 billion (approx. US$3.7 billion). Employment of 4,323 people is planned at the production plant.[8] Annual production of 175,000 electric vehicles is planned,[9] but that may not be enough to avoid the risk to the economy of Turkey of increasing oil imports until 2040.[10] For the first stageIt is planned that 100 cars will be produced for the first time within the Togg production plan.[11]

Lithium mining is planned to start by 2021.[12]

As of 2021 the special consumption tax^(Turkish) – a sales tax on luxuries, such as private cars costing over 300,000 lira ($36,300)[13] – is

• Up to 85 kW motor - 10%
• 85 kW to 120 kW - 25%
• 120 kW and over 60%[14]

In June 2021, Togg filed a complaint in order to obtain the domain name “togg.com”, which was previously purchased by someone else, and brought the issue to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).[15] Togg, in their complaint, stated that the company was founded in 2018 to produce cars and the plaintiff does not have a factory yet but it unveiled plans for two electric vehicles in December 2019. In response the defense said that the domain was bought in 2003 by computer engineer named George Gould for the company named "The Office of George Gould" before selling his company and naming rights to another company in 2010[16] and the domain is already redirected to the website of another company (tcbinc.com) which is the current owner of the disputed "togg.com" and provides computer infrastructure services.[17][18][19]

In September 2021, the complaint of Togg was rejected and ruled in favor of the domain registrant and found that the complaint was brought in bad faith (Reverse Domain Name Hijacking – RDNH).[20][21][22] In the judgment, it was also stated that Togg was right in its complaint about name similarity, but it was concluded that the defendant bought the domain name in 2014, 4 years before Togg was founded, and therefore it was not possible to have bad intentions.[23][24][25]

• Official website