Economy
Türkiye’s EV maker Togg closes in on launch of affordable T6X model
Türkiye’s electric vehicle maker Togg is less than a year away from launching what its board chair says will be a lower-cost model aimed at making car ownership more accessible, with orders expected to open in June 2027.
“We are working on a new, much more affordable model to help our lower-income citizens become car owners,” Fuat Tosyalı said. “We are working with all our strength to offer the most affordable vehicle with the best equipment.”
Initial deliveries of the B-SUV T6X model are planned to begin the same month as orders, Tosyalı said, adding that the company also plans promotional campaigns to support its launch.
The company is currently manufacturing the T10X SUV, introduced two and a half years ago, and the T10F fastback, launched last year, at its factory in the northwestern Bursa province.
The T6X is in the final stages of development, with prototypes currently being prepared ahead of its release next summer.
“We have specifically developed the T6X after the T10X and T10F to make it much more affordable at current prices,” Tosyalı told Anadolu Agency (AA).
Togg was founded eight years ago after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called for the production of a fully locally funded passenger car.
Vestel Elektronik, Anadolu Group Holding, Turkcell and BMC Otomotiv each hold 23% stakes in the company. The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB) owns the remaining 8%.
Togg sold 39,020 vehicles domestically last year and its sales in the first seven months of this year rose 30% year-over-year to 25,848 units, data from the Automotive Distributors and Mobility Association (ODMD) shows.
Toysalı said the compact T6X is designed to be accessible, with a retail price of around TL 1.3 million Turkish lira ($26,936), while promotional financing campaigns will be available at rollout.
Target of 200,000 vehicles per year
Togg was targeting annual production of 150,000 vehicles initially, but Tosyalı said they plan to exceed 200,000 units a year as the company introduces new models across different segments.
The company has already put around 120,000 vehicles on Turkish roads. It has also built a broad service and charging infrastructure.
Tosyalı said sales of the T10X and T10F were now broadly comparable and that their combined monthly sales had been exceeding the total sales of competitors.
Tosyalı said around 80% of service requirements for Togg vehicles could currently be addressed remotely through software.
The company is continuing to expand its physical service network, particularly to meet the needs of customers who require in-person support, he said.
Tosyalı said the growing number of vehicles on the road was also helping Togg optimize production costs and reduce investment costs per vehicle.
Industry sources say that, despite benefiting from tax breaks and incentives, any carmaker is likely to struggle to achieve profitability until production reaches well into a hundred thousand units per year.
“We made the right investment,” Tosyalı said, adding that the company’s initial priority had been to develop a technologically advanced vehicle that consumers could afford and would be satisfied with.
European ambitions
Togg also plans to expand its presence in European markets.
The company entered Germany last year and has received interest from companies in several countries seeking to sell its vehicles locally, Tosyalı said.
Germany was chosen in part because of the large Turkish community there, he said, adding that the company had received stronger-than-expected interest.
However, differences between Türkiye’s and Europe’s banking and vehicle-financing systems have presented a challenge.
Togg is continuing discussions with banks over financing arrangements in Europe, Tosyalı said.
Investment in charging network
Tosyalı said Togg’s charging network operator Trugo would continue investing to expand charging infrastructure ahead of the growing number of EVs on Türkiye’s roads.
Trugo initially concentrated its investments along routes where Togg vehicles were most frequently used, he said.
Nearly 30 brands have since entered Türkiye’s charging business, significantly easing drivers’ concerns about finding charging stations.
Tosyalı said Trugo would continue to lead the sector while also supporting other companies that invest in charging infrastructure.
He added that the growing network meant EV owners would not face a shortage of charging stations now or in the future.
Tosyalı also welcomed potential new domestic carmakers, saying additional Turkish brands would enrich the market and further expand the country’s automotive transformation ecosystem.
The European Union said Monday the bloc would stop imports of Brazilian meat and other animal products as of Thursday pending assurances from Brazil that it is complying with its animal health rules.
The European Commission said Brazil has failed to provide sufficient guarantees that its exports meet EU standards aimed at preventing the misuse of antibiotics in livestock farming.
“Brazil will no longer be authorized to export to the Union food-producing animals and products of animal origin intended for human consumption,” a Commission spokesperson told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Monday.
This will affect commodities like poultry, meat, eggs, honey and casing. Brussels declined to provide a timeline for when imports might resume.
In May, Brazil was put on an EU list of countries that do not keep to rules on the use of antibiotics in animals.
An audit of Brazil’s poultry and honey sectors is due to conclude on Friday.
If the findings are positive and EU member states give approval, Brazilian poultry exports to the bloc could resume within weeks. Beef imports may take longer.
The commission said the timeline would depend on how quickly Brazil can demonstrate compliance with EU requirements.
“Brazil is an important partner for the EU and we are working closely, constructively and positively with Brazilian authorities to ensure their compliance with these requirements,” the spokesperson said.
“Once compliance is demonstrated, exports to the EU will be able to resume.”
The EU is keen to show its vigilance after facing strong criticism from farmers and from France following its signing in January 2026 of a free trade agreement (FTA) with South America’s Mercosur group of countries – Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Brazil was the EU’s second-largest supplier of beef in 2025, exporting more than 92,000 tons worth over 713 million euros ($825 million).
The bloc bans the use of antimicrobials to promote growth in livestock and restricts the use of antibiotics reserved for human medicine, as part of efforts to curb antimicrobial resistance.
Türkiye’s trade with members of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) surpassed $10 billion from January through July of this year, the Trade Ministry said Monday.
The trade rose 6.6% year-over-year to $10.1 billion in the first seven months, the ministry said in a statement.
The annual volume has expanded nearly twentyfold since 2002, climbing from $871 million to $16.9 billion at the end of 2025.
Kazakhstan was Türkiye’s largest trading partner among the OTS members last year, with bilateral trade totaling $7.8 billion. It was followed by Azerbaijan with $4.3 billion, Uzbekistan with $3.1 billion and Kyrgyzstan with $1.6 billion.
Türkiye’s trade with OTS observer countries – Turkmenistan, Hungary and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) – increased 6.8% in 2025 to $10 billion. In January-July this year, it grew 5.1% from the same period last year to $6.1 billion.
Türkiye’s annualized trade with OTS member and observer countries consequently reached $27.8 billion as of July, according to the ministry.
The OTS was established in 2009 and adopted its current name at the Istanbul Summit in 2021. Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are members, while Turkmenistan, Hungary and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus hold observer status.
The ministry said the eastward shift in the center of global production and trade over the past quarter-century had increased the strategic importance of the Turkic region within international trade and logistics networks.
It added that opportunities offered by the Trans-Caspian East-West-Middle Corridor, commonly known as the Middle Corridor, hold significant potential for deeper economic integration across the Turkic world.
“We will continue with determination to strengthen economic and commercial integration within the Organization of Turkic States, make the most effective use of the Middle Corridor’s strategic advantages and further reinforce the Turkic world’s position in global trade,” the ministry said.
The United States will encourage G-20 members to re-examine terms of trade with China to shrink global imbalances and press Beijing to rebalance its economy away from exports and toward domestic consumption, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday.
Bessent said in an interview ahead of a G-20 finance leaders meeting that the current flood of exports from China was unsustainable, even though the U.S. direct trade position with China was “rapidly improving.”
“The world cannot have a China with a $1.2 trillion trade surplus,” Bessent said. “In China, the economy is quite weak, and they are trying to export their way out of it, and they need to rebalance their economy.”
Bessent’s push to mobilize a coordinated trade response to China comes as legal setbacks force the U.S. to rebuild its tariff policy, which had sharply reduced imports from China but led to an influx of Chinese imports elsewhere, especially to Europe and Latin America.
The U.S. has walled off its economy from many Chinese goods with high tariffs and outright bans on some products, including autos. Bessent said he told other industrial economies last year they would face pressures from the China import surge and that “now they are confronted with some very stark choices.”
He said it will be up to other countries to give China an incentive to shift away from exports and strengthen its chronically weak domestic demand.
“The rest of the world is going to have to examine their terms of trade with China,” Bessent said.
The U.S. is pushing for a G-20 joint statement on reducing trade and current account imbalances.
Tariffs imposed since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025 have helped cut the U.S. trade deficit with China for the first six months of 2026 by a third from the same period of 2025, to $73.9 billion, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Some acceleration of Chinese imports occurred in January of the year-earlier period as importers tried to beat anticipated tariffs.
Although some economists and European leaders have called for a coordinated effort to strengthen China’s yuan, Bessent questioned the effectiveness of such a move. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has assessed the yuan to be undervalued by as much as 21%.
Suggestions that a new “Plaza Accord” – the 1985 agreement to strengthen currencies against the dollar – was the answer to reducing imbalances are misguided, he said, calling this “an easy way to get around dealing with the real trade problem,” which he said was excessive Chinese industrial subsidies and weak domestic demand.
Next U.S.-China summit
Bessent said it was unclear whether he would meet with his Chinese counterpart, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, in person ahead of a White House meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping slated for late September.
Ahead of the summit, U.S. and Chinese officials will press forward with dialogues on potential tariff reductions on non-strategic goods and artificial intelligence guardrails aimed at keeping powerful AI models from falling into the hands of non-state actors, Bessent said.
“I think that there probably are $30 billion of non-strategic, non-critical goods on each side that we could take the tariffs off,” he said.
The September summit comes as the U.S. has been rebuilding Trump’s tariffs after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down broad duties imposed under an emergency law, including 20% on Chinese imports.
Trump’s administration in July imposed a 12.5% tariff on Chinese imports under an anti-forced labor trade investigation. It is poised to add more tariffs related to excess industrial capacity under a separate probe.
The U.S. Treasury chief also said that he planned to hold a bilateral meeting during the Asheville G-20 conference with People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng, but declined to discuss details.
Türkiye’s economy expanded at a moderate pace in the second quarter despite a sharp slowdown in domestic demand amid tight monetary policy and the Iran war impact, official data showed Monday.
Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2.3% on an annual basis in the April-June period, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said. That compared with market forecasts ranging from 2.5% to 2.9%.
Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said growth would rise after the “balanced” second quarter expansion, which he said came despite heightened geopolitical tensions and difficult global conditions.
“Thanks to progress in the disinflation process and more supportive global conditions, we expect growth to gradually increase in the coming period,” Şimşek said in a statement after the data.
GDP grew 1.1% from the previous quarter on a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, compared with a revised 0.3% in the previous three months, the data showed.
The strongest growth by activity was shown by agriculture, forestry and fishing, which expanded 13.3%, while information and communication grew 8.6%, the data showed.
Public administration, education, human health and social work activities expanded 4%. Value added increased 3.2% in other service activities, 2.4% in industry, and 2.1% each in financial and insurance activities and real estate.
Construction was the only major sector to contract, falling 1.9% from a year earlier.
At current prices, Türkiye’s GDP rose 36% year-over-year to TL 19.87 trillion ($438.35 billion) in the second quarter.
Şimşek said annualized GDP exceeded $1.7 trillion.
Household consumption, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, increased 3.5% in the April-June period. That compared to 5.1% in the first quarter. The data showed government consumption declined 1.8%.
Gross fixed capital formation, a measure of investment, grew 0.6% from the same period last year.
Exports of goods and services fell 3.4% year-over-year, while imports decreased by a sharper 6.4%.
Şimşek said the annualized current-account deficit reached $38.9 billion in the second quarter, reflecting the impact of geopolitical developments on Türkiye’s trading partners and higher commodity prices, particularly energy.
The deficit remained at a sustainable 2.3% of GDP, he added.
Haluk Bürümcekçi from Bürümcekçi Research and Consultancy said there was an “increasingly evident loss of momentum in domestic demand.”
Bürümcekçi added that the “positive contribution from net external demand after six quarters suggests that the first signs of the ‘rebalancing among demand components,’ one of the key objectives of the economic program, have begun to emerge.”
External demand contributed 0.6 percentage points to second-quarter growth, while domestic demand shrank 1.3% quarter-over-quarter, economists said, noting that this was a disinflationary development.
Turkish annual consumer price inflation cooled to 31.75% in July. The decline in inflation had stalled following a sharp rise in energy prices caused by the Iran war.
The country’s central bank has held the benchmark one-week repo rate at 37% in the last four policy meetings as it monitors Middle East conflict fallout.
While tight monetary and fiscal policies implemented to balance domestic demand and combat high inflation put pressure on growth, the economy grew by 2.6% in the first quarter, according to revised figures.
Growth in 2025 was revised to 3.7% from 3.6%.
GDP at current prices increased 41.6% to TL 63.24 trillion last year, while GDP per capita stood at TL 714,682, or $18,103.
The government’s current medium-term program projected growth of 3.8% in 2026. A new medium-term program will be announced next week.
Şimşek said the 2027-2029 road map would focus on achieving price stability, strengthening Türkiye’s growth potential through technological transformation and productivity gains and securing lasting improvements in living standards
Şimşek said the budget continued to perform positively despite the government foregoing significant tax revenue through its fuel-price adjustment mechanism launched in March to limit the impact of the Iran war.
The so-called sliding-scale system allowed reductions in the special consumption tax (ÖTV) to offset increases in global oil prices and limit their impact on domestic fuel prices and inflation.
Gross external debt remained broadly stable at 31.6% of GDP in the second quarter, Şimşek said.
Türkiye’s total debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 91%, well below the average of 229% for emerging markets and 306% globally, he added.
The impact of AI on cyber risk is the most immediate concern for the global financial system, a global watchdog said Monday, cautioning that the technology could change the speed, scale and economics of an attack.
Many countries do not have systems in place to manage the deployment of advanced artificial intelligence models, said Andrew Bailey, the chair of the Financial Stability Board, which seeks to identify and manage risks in financial systems.
The warning by Bailey, who also serves as the Bank of England governor, came in a letter to G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors ahead of meetings this week.
The financial sector’s dependence on a handful of powerful tech providers could undermine system-wide market confidence, Bailey said.
The comments highlighted concerns among regulators that advanced AI could accelerate the discovery of cyber vulnerabilities, forcing faster patching and creating potential operational and resilience challenges if testing and recovery processes are unable to adapt safely.
His comments follow the U.S. administration’s tightly controlled rollout of Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, restricting it at one point to only U.S. nationals.
“Recent developments highlight the importance of ensuring that advances in capability are matched by resilience and preparedness,” he said.
Supporting safe and responsible model release “on a global basis” should be a priority, he said.
In July, an OpenAI agent escaped a controlled testing environment and hacked AI company Hugging Face, raising concerns about the potential for AI systems to circumvent safeguards.
Bailey reiterated prior warnings about the risk of potential market corrections, citing stretched AI valuations and frailties in government debt markets, while flagging as an emerging concern the increase in the use of leverage in equity markets.
The U.S. Treasury earlier this month intervened to cap yields on long-term bonds that had reached multi-decade highs.
Japan’s Defense Ministry asked for a record budget of 8.9 trillion yen ($55.6 billion) Monday, as Tokyo turns to artificial intelligence to sharpen decision-making in an increasingly tense security climate.
The final budget reportedly could reach 10 trillion yen as Tokyo undergoes a sweeping upgrade of its defense in order to navigate growing tension with neighbors such as China, North Korea and Russia.
The latest request focuses on countering “new ways of warfare,” with an emphasis on the use of AI, drones and standoff missiles.
Under the request, the ministry hopes to implement an AI-powered decision support system.
It also wants to procure low-cost drones that can work in tandem with long-range missiles to neutralize enemy assets.
The ministry said it plans to develop underwater-launched hypersonic missiles and establish a new unit to bolster defenses against cognitive warfare, a growing threat aimed at shaping public opinion through disinformation campaigns and other operations.
The budget request for the fiscal year starting from April 2027 highlights the latest step by Japan to boost its military to meet the volatile geopolitical reality, gradually shedding its traditional pacifist stance that limited the use of force purely for self-defense.
China’s rapid military expansion and North Korea’s steady development of missiles and nuclear weapons have pressed Japan to shore up its defense.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has fueled worries among Japanese policymakers that a similar conflict could erupt in East Asia, considering China’s mounting pressure on Taiwan and its escalating territorial disputes with Japan.
Request could increase
The Nikkei newspaper said the Defense Ministry’s request may jump to more than 10 trillion yen, citing an unnamed ruling party lawmaker.
The current request did not specify the estimated costs of many products and services, including missiles, drones and digital systems.
These figures will be finalized once the government finishes its revision of core national security documents by the end of the year, defense officials said.
Those three documents set the outline of the country’s future defense capabilities while assessing the country’s security environment.
Japan has been beefing up military spending and security cooperation in Asia, deploying missile launchers to outer islands, moving to acquire “counterstrike” capabilities and easing rules on weapons exports.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, seen as a China hawk, has placed national defense at the top of her conservative agenda.
Japan’s ties with China deteriorated sharply after she suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily in any conflict over Taiwan, which Beijing insists is its territory.
China has expressed alarm at what it sees as a return to “new militarism” by Japan.
Under Takaichi, the government is expected to make an overall budget request of around 143 trillion yen, a sharp increase from 122.4 trillion yen requested for the ongoing fiscal year, the Nikkei newspaper reported.
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