ANKARA

Over one million electric vehicles are anticipated to be on Turkey's roads by 2030, according to Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez on Thursday.

"By 2022 or 2023, we hope to see our own indigenous automobile on the roads," Donmez told Anadolu Agency's Editors' Desk.

After the country launched its first indigenous and all-electric automobile prototype, the energy ministry plans to assess the impact of one million charge points on the country's electricity distribution network, Donmez said.

On Dec. 27, Turkey introduced its first indigenous automobile prototype that was designed and manufactured in 18 months by Turkey’s Automobile Joint Venture Group (TOGG), a conglomerate of industrial giants including the Anadolu Group, BMC, Kok Group, Turkcell and Zorlu Holding as well as an umbrella organization, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey.

TOGG is currently working with the ministry to determine the optimum location for the installation of fast-charging points in the country.

"These points should be able to charge a car in nearly 15-25 minutes, depending on the car battery's capacity and features, which means there needs to be a capacity of 50-100 kilowatt-hours in the grid," he explained.

Therefore, fast-charging units located in the selected areas need to have sufficient power supply to cope with this electricity requirement.

"TOGG's expectation from us [energy ministry] is to include not only the big cities in Turkey but also other smaller cities in Anatolia where there is great interest," Donmez declared.