Electric car batteries to be produced in Turkey thanks to R&D investments

Research and development (R&D) investments in the auto sector seem to have gained momentum in Turkey with the private operators in its support sector recently announcing new investment plans.

Yiğit Akü, one of the leading battery companies in Turkey, on Friday announced that the company is investing $1 million in R&D to develop electric car batteries, which it is planning to produce in coming years.

This is news for Turkey as the battery company is set to produce lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries used in the electric cars and Yiğit Akü is planning to take leadership in Europe in the production of such batteries in the coming years.

Just as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been promoting during his election campaign, Turkey is planning to produce its own domestic car brand soon. R&D activities are seen as being at the heart of such an ambitious goal as they will provide the necessary technology to make it possible to produce all required parts domestically and also have a competitive advantage in the sector in order to compete globally.

The most important aspects of producing a domestic car brand should be one that it can compete internationally. Taking into consideration unstable energy prices in the world market, concerns about the scarcity of oil reserves and global warming, the idea of producing alternative-energy cars has gained importance. The electric car emerged among other types as a candidate to satisfactorily address all of those concerns.

With such R&D investment plans coming from the private sector in the industry, producing a domestic car brand now seems more possible than before.

According to a statement released by Yiğit Akü, following a one-year feasibility study, a R&D laboratory configuration has been completed where studies on Li-ion batteries are ready to be launched. The statement also notes that the laboratory that, which will be home to 66 scientists, is a first in its field in Turkey.

Yiğit Akü General Manager Hulki Büyükkalender states that the company has raised the bar in the automotive sector with this investment as R&D activities are crucial for the industry. He also emphasizes that for years in Turkey, the share of R&D activities were less than a percentage of the national income, adding, “Yiğit Akü has increased the resources allocated to R&D activities from our budget each year. The portion of our turnover that went to R&D in 2008 was 2 percent, while the same figure was only 0.5 percent in 2002. In 2011 we will fund R&D at 4 percent of our turnover.”

This is good news for the auto sector because ever since Erdoğan made public his wish to see firms in Turkey produce a domestic car brand the debates has intensified around whether Turkey has the necessary technology, especially when it comes to producing an electric car.

Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Çağlayan informed the media when those debates were still fresh that the due to a lack of required technology, each battery necessary to produce an electric car would cost 10,000 euros to import. “This is almost the cost of buying a new car, and what interests me is the share of domestic contribution in producing such a car,” Çağlayan noted at the time.

According to an earlier study reported in Today’s Zaman, R&D investments are at the heart of the action plan to produce a national auto brand in Turkey, which was announced by Industry and Trade Minister Nihat Ergün in April.

On Friday, Association of Automotive Parts and Components Manufacturers (TAYSAD) President Celal Kaya said that they will intensify their quest to increase the number of R&D centers in the sector and aim to have 50 such centers by 2012.

Mentioning the rapidly growing Turkish automotive industry, the TAYSAD head underlined that the supply industry plays a critical role in this growth and that they will need the support of the government to expand further. Kaya said there are 5,000 engineers working in R&D centers in Turkey to develop better technologies for the auto industry and that this number should be increased.

The government in Turkey and the private sector in the automotive field both have been increasingly engaging in R&D debates emphasizing the importance of the latter for the sector. This, in turn, seems to be providing moral support to the sector as Büyükkalender notes that his company aims to take electric car battery production to another level in Turkey, as their goal is to be the leader in Li-ion battery production in Europe.

via Electric car batteries to be produced in Turkey thanks to R&D investments.