Turkey will allocate 3.2 billion euros ($3.7 billion) for its first domestically produced car, Science, Industry and Technology Minister Faruk Özlü said Friday.
"The basic parameters of the project were shaped. We will invest 3.2 billion euros. There will be a facility that has the capacity to produce 200,000 cars. There were five models of cars. As we thought since the beginning, the car will be electric," Özlü said in a live interview with private news channel TGRT Haber.
The minister said the project would contribute about 50 billion euros ($58.8 billion) to the gross national product in the long term.
"This project will directly provide 4,000 jobs and indirectly 20,000 jobs," he added.
The minister said they would catch the fancy of the middle and upper classes: "We are mostly thinking of a car in segments B and C. It will be cheaper than peers. It should be at least 5 percent cheaper than its peers and more qualified than its peers."
The partnership agreement to create Turkey's first indigenous car brand was signed on May 31.
The manufacturing company was named Turkey's Automobile Initiative Group.
Five domestic firms - Anadolu Group, BMC, Kök Group, Turkcell and Zorlu Holding with 19 percent of shares each - and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) with 5 percent of shares will jointly lead the firm.
Mehmet Gürcan Karakaş, one of the top global executives in technology giant Bosch and a successful Turkish manager in the global automotive market, was appointed as the CEO.
The initiative came after repeated calls by President Erdoğan for a joint car project by TOBB and the Science, Industry and Technology Ministry.
Last November, President Erdoğan announced that the prototype of the first domestically produced car - expected to be produced in Ankara - would be ready in 2019 and enter the market in 2021.
"The place is not certain yet. Our aim is to unveil the prototype of the domestic car in 2019 and want to present it for sale in 2021," Özlü said.
The president praised efforts to ensure that the mass production of the first indigenous automobile would be either electric or hybrid.
Turkey attempted to produce its first domestically produced car in 1961, the Devrim (Revolution), which was unsuccessful after production and was halted following the first prototypes.