While there are more than 1.2 million electric cars worldwide, this number is expressed yet in thousands in Turkey. Nevertheless the expectation that the local car will be electric and the number of electric cars will surge to 100 million worldwide during the next 20 years, increases the appetite.”We should decide whether we will be the diesel car market of Europe or we will catch the trend” says Bayram, Head of the Electric Cars Association of Turkey.

As the players in the power distribution and retail industry prepare themselves for the future with investments to the infrastructure and technology, they are also watching the ‘road’. Because more than 1.2 million electric cars worldwide are candidates to be the best customers of the power distribution and retail industry companies.

Indeed according to BP’s Energy Outlook 2017 Report, the electric cars in circulation will surge to 100 million by the year 2035 over the world. If the anticipations come true, 55 in every one thousand cars on the roads will run on electricity in 20 years.

Again at C40 summit held at the end of 2016, the mayors of Paris, Madrid, Athens and Mexico City announced that the vehicles running on fossil fuels will be banned from traffic in their respective cities after the year 2025 and this declaration brings again the issue of electric cars, actually with a past of some 150 years in the global history, on the agenda.

Well, what is the number of electric cars in Turkey and what are the expectations for the future? We talked with Berkan Bayram, Head of the Electric and Hybrid Cars Association of Turkey (TEHAD), about this issue.

Minister of Industry Faruk Özlü stated that the local car may come to the market in 2019. How does a local car running on electricity affect the competition?

This is a very important step. The most important notion to remember is that we are independent in design and patent ownership in electric cars. Today, when you attempt to manufacture a Made in Turkey car fueled by gasoline, you cannot act independently from the 14 brands dominating on the global automotive industry. However, you don’t have to ask for permission to anyone to manufacture electric cars. When we look at the sales figures of the electric cars in 2016, we see that they rose over 100 thousand units in the European market. Only in China, 361 thousand electric cars were sold last year. I hope that these sales figures tell something to us.

In 2016, only 44 electric cars were sold in Turkey. Today, how many electric cars are on the roads in Turkey?

Today, the total number of electric cars on ne de devlet politikasına bağlı. Ülkemizde bu sektörün geleceğini tamamen markaların politikaları belirleyecektir diye düşünüyorum. Son 5 yıllık dünya satış rakamlarındaki artışın ülkemiz açısından hissedilir bir yansımaya sahip olmayışının altında Türk otomotiv sektöründe yer alan marka ve STK’ların da büyük rolü var aslında. Yetersiz pazarlama teknikleri, doğru anlatılmayan teknoloji, sektörü temsil eden the roads of Turkey is around one thousand. When we look from the perspective of the Turkish market, the future of electric car depends neither on the consumer nor on the state policy. I think that in our country, the future of this industry will totally be shaped by the policies of the brands. The fact that the rise in the global sales during the past 5 years didn’t have a big influence for our country can also be explained by the substantial role of the brands and non-profitable organizations engaged in the Turkish automotive industry. The critical matters such as poor marketing methods, failure of explaining the technology correctly and the non-profitable organizations, representing the industry, still unaware of the developments in the world, widen the gap. Therefore, we are always on the side of consuming, not on the side of developing technology.

Are the car drivers informed about the incentives and driving benefits for the electric cars? There is a perception that the electric car may stop on the road and cause troubles; what can you say about it?

Yes, you are right, the electric vehicle industry is still full of uncertainties. This picture results from the fact that people see the electric car as something similar to the toy cars running on batteries, our awareness is low and we don’t have thorough information about the industry. However, our state took a radical decision in 2011 and cut the electric car tax to 3 per cent. Despite this big difference in taxation, the fear of stopping on the road or the belief that these cars have low performance because of the bad models on the market in the past, is not logical. We couldn’t yet develop the local electric car but we produced the local electric bus and minibus. Now our unique need is to open a suitable market for these models. To do that, our local administrations should assume missions.

What notions should a person buying a car pay attention to?

According to me, a car driver not doing over 20 thousand km a year, should not choose diesel. He should choose an electric car. Today, the electric car models have an average range over 300 km. A weekend journey out of town is possible with the charging stations located along the itinerary and is less costly. The fuel cost of the electric cars is one tenth of the similar conventional car.

The absence of expenditures like the annual maintenance cost and motor vehicle tax, reduces the cost up to the price of a second hand car. Given that the night tariff of the house electricity price is 0,26 liras, the advantage is already obvious compared to gasoline and diesel. Considering that the market share of the electric cars is not even 1 per cent or the number of electric cars sold in a year is below 100, it doesn’t mean that the same is valid for the global markets too. For example, the market share of electric cars in Norway is defined with 30 something per cent. As for China, this country goes faster than others. The same can be said for US and Japan too. Under these circumstances, we should decide quickly whether we’ll be the market of diesel cars of Europe or we’ll keep pace with this trend.

Well, is the number of charge stations really enough? Is the fuel cost more affordable compared to diesel?

Our infrastructure of charge stations is absolutely better than the sales figures of electric cars. Today, there are more than 400 charge stations open to the public in our country and the total number of stations for personal and private use reached to one thousand. There are some 150 charge stations in Istanbul. The driver of electric car cannot have charge problems within Istanbul. Even if we don’t notice, we drive approximately 60 km. with our car in a day. And we drive an average of 4 hours in a day. In other words, we go out in the morning and drive to our work which takes about 2 hours and our vehicle remains in the parking area until 6.00 p.m. when we take again our car to return home after work. Our car waits again for 8 hours until morning outside the house. And the best transportation vehicle for this routine is not diesel but electric car. If we drive only 60 km a day and we use our car only for 4 hours and if the whole world, except of us, is aware of this reality, it becomes obvious that more actions should be taken to raise the awareness.