Togg: Turkish automaker’s first e-SUV enters test production

The first electric SUV from Turkish automaker Togg is entering test production. If everything goes smoothly, the E-SUV from the company founded in 2018 will go into series production in the first quarter of 2023.

Togg E-SUV enters test production

Much is still open in the planning of the Togg E-SUV at the moment, as even a final name has yet to be given to the first electric car from Turkey’s Automobile Joint Venture Group Inc (TOGG for short), which was only founded in 2018.

At least the vehicle is now rolling off the assembly lines of the newly built factory near Istanbul in a so-called manufacturing try-out. CEO Gürcan Karakas revealed this to the Handelsblatt. Already at the beginning of November, they want to have perfected the processes and “then freeze in this form,” said Karakas.

If all goes according to plan, the Togg E-SUV is scheduled for release late in the first quarter of 2023. But to do so, it must first successfully pass qualification and certification tests to receive approval under the European standard.

Togg builds first electric car from Turkey

Within a short period of time, Togg has accomplished quite a bit in the process. Barely two years passed between the first announcement to establish the company and the first presentation of two models, the E-SUV and a sedan.

Really many details about the new E-SUV are not yet available, however. On its own homepage, the manufacturer states that it wants to produce “more than just a car”. One chooses an approach, with which driver and driver would be in the center.

“Countless” customization options are to be offered, but not much more is known. At CES 2022, the “Transition Concept Smart Device” study provided a first glimpse of the company’s own sedan, which is to accompany the new e-SUV.

It is visually oriented to the Tesla Model 3 and reveals the signature of the Italian designer Pininfarina, who produced the first prototypes for Togg.

According to earlier details on the Togg E-SUV, taken from a now-deleted datasheet, the e-car will be offered in two powertrain options. Both with a 147 kW electric motor in the rear, and with an all-wheel drive engine that realizes 294 kW via a second motor on the front axle.

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Attack on the E-SUV Frontier

The latter model is expected to accelerate the SUV from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.8 seconds. Also to be offered are two battery capacities, which should allow a range of 300 or 500 km. But that’s as far as the official data goes.

The latter would be a remarkable value. This would position the e-SUV just below the 2022 BMW iX xDrive50, which recently achieved a range of 607 kilometers in a test. That gave the Bavarian the top spot in U.S. magazine Edmunds’s range test.

But since the Togg E-SUV is now slowly approaching production readiness, concrete details should probably be coming our way soon. It remains to be seen whether the first vehicle from Turkey will ultimately be able to compete with the best E-SUVs.