Togg Steps On The Accelerator With Its EVs At CES 2024 In Las Vegas
We first met Turkish automotive manufacturer Togg on a 2022 media tour outside of Istanbul in Bursa. At the time, Togg had not produced any electric vehicles, but the company had a factory under construction and an oversized ambition to change the future of transportation in Turkiye. It’s just the bold type of vision that’s crazy enough to come true, and they have been anything but idle at Togg.
Istanbul, Turkiye, sits at the intersection of Europe and Asia, and because of this, it has deep roots as a multicultural trading hub. In the modern era, Turkiye has emerged as one of the core manufacturing hubs for Europe, pushing out automobiles for many of Europe’s signature brands.
Togg had ambitions to not only build Turkiye’s first electric vehicle, but to begin exporting it into Europe and beyond. Its long term vision has five different vehicles planned, with a near term target of delivering 20,000 vehicles in 2023.
Why CES?
Ramping production from 0 to 20,000 vehicles in the first year of production was ambitious to say the least, so we were eager to sit down with Togg’s CEO Gürcan Karakaş at CES in Las Vegas. 2024 was Togg’s third time at CES and the company was showing off its brand new T10F fully electric sedan to the world for the first time.
It’s a bit strange for an automaker from Turkiye to be making big announcements and new vehicle introductions at a show halfway around the world. I asked Mr. Karakaş about this and he smiled as he related just how many connections he had made at CES in the past.
“Just walking around here for 30 minutes and I already have two new ideas,” he said. “Here, you find ideas, answers, potential.” It is because of the connections made at CES in the past that CES is now a key piece of Togg’s strategy.
It’s not only for sharing Togg’s vision with the world, but also to make new connections with other companies that make Togg’s brand and products even better. “It’s always fun walking around, talking to startups, getting new ideas, connecting the dots,” Karakaş said.
“It’s also the occasion to announce to the entire world how far we [have come] with our second smart device,” Karakaş said. Togg clearly views its vehicles as fully connected devices that sit at the intersection of the automotive and mobility.
Indeed, Togg is building an entire ecosystem of technologies and platforms around its vehicles that includes home energy storage and energy management. “We believe that our holistic approach with the mobility ecosystem is really a core piece of your life.”
A gamified app brings Togg’s vehicles and energy management products together, making these technologies easy to use by the average consumer. A demo in Togg’s booth showed how the gamified app would help educate consumers and add value by allowing them to earn money at the same time.
Instead of paying customers to reduce energy consumption, Togg is building a new financial system built on top of block chain technology using a new form of crypto token. “The name of the token is Toggen,” Karakaş said. He believes the new energy ecosystem Togg is building has the potential to completely disrupt the financial system as well. It’s a bold vision, but based on Togg’s performance to date, one that should be taken seriously.
The People’s Car
CES is known for over-the-top presentations and ostentatious booths, so for Togg to really have an impact, it is going to have to build some cars. In response to my inquiry, Mr Karakaş confirmed with a huge smile that Togg had indeed met its target of producing 20,000 vehicles in 2023. That’s a massive achievement that required the company to ramp up from zero to a production rate of north of 5,000 vehicles per month in December.
The electric vehicle competition in Turkiye is fierce, but Karakaş believes the Turkish people are eager to rally around their home brand. Togg racked up 177,000 preorders via its app in just 18 hours of them opening up.
“This was the dream of the nation for 6 years that fills us with pride,” Karakaş said. Those preorders are already converting to actual sales as Togg ramped production in the back half of 2023.
Building on that success, Togg has plans for 5 vehicles, including the T10F that was unveiled at CES this year. With so many shuttle vans being used to get employees to work in Turkiye, I asked if an electric Togg van was on the way.
“The answer is yes,” Karakaş confirmed. “It was originally planned as one of the early models.” The move gives companies across Turkiye a fully electric option for getting their employees to work. The opportunity is much larger than just this, however.
“Many people use [vans] for small businesses,” Karakaş explained. Compact, enclosed vans are the workhorses of Europe. Where Americans would opt for a pickup truck, tradesman across Europe prefer enclosed vans. With Togg’s sights already set on Western European markets for export, an electric Togg van would have plenty of room to grow. “85% of the vehicles manufacturered [in Turkiye] are for Europe.”
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Global Competition
Over the last 3 years, adoption of electric vehicles around the world has surged, with China and Europe leading the pack. Zero emission mandates, emission-free city centers, and heavy incentives paved the way for automakers to kick production into high gear. “Over the last 2 years, all of them have made announcements,” Karakaş said. “After 2028, they will not be building any combustion engines or developing them in any case.”
In parallel, unprecedented government stimulus fertilized the economic soil, spawning hundreds of new electric vehicle upstarts and EV-adjacent businesses. In 2023, the global economy shriveled as governments around the world pushed interest rates up to levels not seen in a decade in an effort to combat rampant inflation.
The global economy took a turn for the worse, taking many electric vehicles startups around the world down with it. “In Europe, there are none anymore. They are all bankrupt,” Karakaş said of the EV startup scene.
2023 also saw numerous global electric vehicle manufacturers rushing into Turkiye with their vehicles. Chinese BYD launched three vehicles in Turkiye in October with sales books opening in November. Tesla also opened up its sales books in Turkiye in May for the Model Y, giving it an early foothold in the country.
In spite of the global economic headwinds, Togg has succeeded. The company ramped production from zero, turning what was until recently a forested block of land into a fully fledged automotive plant that’s absolutely churning out electric vehicles. Togg is Turkiye’s first domestic automotive brand and the Turkish people are clearly excited about it, if sales are any indication.
Togg kicked off its customer deliveries in the middle of this global electric vehicle storm, delivering its first vehicles to Turkish customers in May 2023. Togg pushed out more than 20,000 vehicles last year alone and these sales were confined to a single model. At CES this year, Togg unveiled the new T10F fully electric sedan, which allows even more customers to get on board.
Platform Version Two
Karakaş and the team at Togg have a bold vision for the brand. First, they are a car company, but they are firmly rooted in the vehicle being a digital-first device. “We will have in the next 5 years, our second generation,” Karakaş said. Whereas most vehicle upgrades are focused on the power train or range, the second generation Togg vehicle is a digital-first reimagining of the vehicle that includes its processing capabilities from the ground up.
Togg is shifting away from individual microcontrollers to a more centralized architecture that would see a single master controller managing a host of connected components as slaves. Togg believes this will reduce its reliance on the microprocessor chips that have caused numerous supply chain issues for automakers around the world over the last 3 years.
The Right Range For Each Customer
Togg is also pushing to get the most out of existing lithium-ion battery cell chemistries. Over the next three years, Togg expects to, “increase energy density in the same form factor. This will increase our range by up to 25% by 2026.” That would take the existing 600km range and boost it up to 720km or achieve the same range with fewer cells in the pack.
Looking forward to the end of the 2020s, Togg also expects solid-state batteries to be added to its vehicles where it makes sense. The company sees a hybrid approach that uses the right battery for each application, price point, and customer.
For vehicles with more than 600km range, NMC is likely to be the best fit, according to Karakaş. For owners in cities who need less than 600km range, LFP is likely a better fit as the total range can be lower and the battery will need to be able to take on more charging cycles over its life.
Ultimately, delivering the right range in a vehicle depends on a number of factors. Today, EV charging infrastructure is a key sticking point, and Togg is also working on that with its own network of DC fast chargers.
Overall
When we visited Togg in Turkiye in late 2022, they were showing us bold plans from the comfort of a conference room. They had beautiful prototypes sitting in a would-be showroom and doted over a scale model of the factory they were planning to build.
In just over a year, they managed to build an entire factory that churns out electric vehicles at an impressive rate. The production ramp and corresponding sales speaks to their ability to execute against their bold vision and their words carry more weight now.
Since then, Togg’s vision has only continued to expand, with a second model being added to the family at CES and a comprehensive lifestyle app that lets owners manage their vehicle and the energy in their home. Togg is building out a network of EV chargers and challenging customers to save energy, paying them back with an all new blockchain-backed cryptocurrency.
We’ll be keeping an eye on Togg and Turkiye as a whole as they move at a breakneck pace to electrify transportation domestically and beyond. For more information about Togg, head over to the website.
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