Electric cars are an extremely simple, mature technology that is decades old. Building one isn't hard. The real trick is high volume production of high capacity lithium ion batteries, and the associated pack technology. This is why the Europeans are still massively behind Japan, Korea, and the US (Tesla) with EVs. They can't get enough cells to manufacture cars in high enough volume to be profitable, because they are simply buying them from LG Chem and Panasonic.
If Turkey isn't investing billions into battery production, then the whole endeavor is a pointless prestige project.
Zorlu Enerji (It's a well known Turkish energy company as well as part of the TOGG) already invested 4.5 billion USD to build up a battery factory together with Chinese GSR Capital.
Don't really understand the point about autarky. Sure you can build all the wheel yourself but historically that haven't made competitive industry, rather, it made horribly inefficient state owned enteprise and produced extremely poor product. And it's not like global battery supply is monopolized - you can get battery packs from Panasonic, BYD or LG Chem, and it will be both cheaper and better than whatever Turkey can come up in a few year.
Electric cars are an extremely simple, mature technology that is decades old. Building one isn't hard. The real trick is high volume production of high capacity lithium ion batteries, and the associated pack technology. This is why the Europeans are still massively behind Japan, Korea, and the US (Tesla) with EVs. They can't get enough cells to manufacture cars in high enough volume to be profitable, because they are simply buying them from LG Chem and Panasonic.
If Turkey isn't investing billions into battery production, then the whole endeavor is a pointless prestige project.