Turkey's Car tOGGer CEO GurcanTurkoglu King, "all eyes are upon us scene the 24 hours. We work day and night to make this dream come true. Europe also follows us closely, we do not have the luxury of making mistakes ”.
Sixty years of Turkey will realize our dream cars Cars Initiative Group (TOGG) We üssünd IT Valley in Gebze. There is a feverish work in the local automobile factory, the foundation of which was laid in July in Gemlik. The teams never stop at the center in Gebze. Cars saying that Turkey's continued work to strengthen the floor of the factory in Gemlik tOGGer CEO GurcanTurkoglu King, "There is no delay in the process," he says. Explaining that they feel like they are on the stage for 24 hours, Karakaş emphasizes that many countries in Europe have their eyes on TOGG.
How does it feel to be the beginning of Turkey's 60-year dream project?
Building a technology product from scratch is every engineer's dream. Not everyone. The fact that the vehicle is built for our country increases our excitement. We are doing a project that is very rare in the world. We're talking about setting up the core mobility ecosystem. There is a continuation of a 60-year-old car dream. It has its completion. We always feel like we're on stage 24 hours a day. In our opinion, we have a duty to fulfill a dream and bring it to life. This gives us great energy.
WE MAKE BRAIN DIRECTION
How many people are you a team?
We are 195 engineers, a total of 215 people. Soon, 15-20 more engineers will join us. Most of our employees are people who took part in international projects… There are also foreigners in our team… We are doing a reverse brain drain. We have friends from America and Europe. An experienced Turkish friend who worked at Tesla and Faraday Future joined us… There are those we have met and are on the way to an agreement. We find and bring people who are experts and competent in their fields. Currently there are more than 30 thousand applications in our HR pool. In 2023, we will pass 500 easily. The total number of jobs for the project is more than 4.300. We have 1-2 years to recruit new graduates. We have not started to buy blue collar for the factory yet.
AWESOME RATE OF 51 PERCENT LOCATION
Have you been able to identify your suppliers?
We shook hands with 95-98 percent. We have nearly 300 main supplier groups. These companies produce 51 percent of its value as volume in Turkey. The procurement process of the factory will start in October. If we find the technical quality product we want, we prefer the local one, even if it is a bit more expensive.
Is this investment followed from abroad, do they say 'what are the Turks doing'?
Of course it is… If you search it on Google you'll see it. We have been appearing in Germany's magazines for several weeks. Even German newspapers say, "You are sleeping, nanotechnologies are developing." They make this criticism not on the Turks but on the attitudes of the Germans. I'm not saying to exaggerate our strength, but they are following us, their eyes on us. From the moment we enter the market, we will be the first company in Europe designed as an electric vehicle.
If you have 15 years of time and endless resources to develop a new product, of course a car can be 100 percent domestic. Some components are produced in 39-40 million pieces abroad. It does not make commercial sense to make this investment for our target capacity of 175 thousand units. We set out to produce a globally competitive brand. If you produce twice the price for being domestic, it would not make sense in commercial terms. This is, after all, a commercial enterprise. We have to keep the promise we made to ourselves and our state in indigenous. We say 51 percent native. This is a very good figure for a startup company.
WE FEEL OUR PRESIDENT'S SUPPORT
Do you talk to President Erdogan about investment?
Our president does not call me or I do not physically go and give information. But he cares a lot about the project and makes us feel his support every time. We don't have to talk one to one to feel support. We feel it through the ministers. Our Chairman of the Board of Directors Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu is meeting regularly.
EXPORT IS A MUST FOR LASTING SUCCESS
Will there be export, what are your plans?
In my opinion, the proof of our success in the medium and long term is our exports. Your export means we are competitive on a global scale. For this reason, we want to be in export, we made our plan accordingly. Us achieve our terms, Turkey has no time for one more loss. Because we know that nothing we do after missing the window of opportunity in this segment will have no meaning ...
40 THOUSAND COLONES WILL BE PLANTED ON THE FACTORY LAND
There were 3 criteria we were looking for when choosing this place. We had to be in the Marmara Region. In any case, the ground of Marmara is troublesome, earthquake zone and not strong enough for construction. This was not something we did not calculate. In line with the opinions of 6 professors who are experts in their fields, we strengthen the ground with a special technology. We build 1.5 meters wide, 15-20 meters deep towers and underground columns. We will do this 40 thousand times. We make our own rock floor. These are not huge costs for us. They say, 'It has been 2 months since it started, nothing is visible'. We are proceeding in accordance with our business plan. After the reinforcement work, the construction move will begin. We are stripping 1.2 meters of soil on an area of 1.5 million square meters. After that, ground reinforcement is made. More qualified soil will be placed on it and a building will be built. At the beginning of the investment is Brazilian Sergio Rocha, who has managed factories in General Motors for nearly 40 years.
IF I SLEEP FOR 4.5 HOURS, I WOULD HAVE MORE HARMONY
Gürcan Karakaş, who was born in Antalya Akseki in 26, left the CEO position of TOGG after leaving the top management of German Bosch 1965 months ago upon the invitation he received, and said that they are working hard with his entire team. Karakas said the alarm rings every day at 6 in the morning, "car passion project of Turkey to begin interrupted several times as we said we will try, we will try, we will try out a product out within a year. Indeed we did that. If I sleep 4.5 hours, I will have too much sleep. There are even days when I can't sleep until morning. I think whether we should do it this way or this way. Even at 2-3 at night, we correspond with our teammates. My wife sometimes tells me 'you are married to work'. But since we meet at the workplace, he knows and understands my way of working ”.
WE ESTABLISHED A TALK GROUP WITH BABAYİĞİTLER
FIVE amateurs as well as established by TOBB partnership with Turkey's Car Project Joint Venture Karakas we asked how it feels to be at the beginning of the investment group, "Yes, I have many bosses, but in this case helping me, supporting, I'll ask inserted when the question is meant to be the one. Our board of directors convenes every month. We are meeting not only with babayiğit, but also with their CEOs and CFOs. We see different perspectives on generating common sense. In this respect, our model is very strong ”. Answering the question "Do you have a WhatsApp group on the phone with Babayiğit?" Saying that when they need to meet with group members or have ideas about something, Karakaş said, “This is very important. During the pandemic, we stopped physically gathering. We meet in the computer environment. Presidential Decree on expropriation came last night, I immediately shared it in the group ”.
Source: MORNING
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