“We are working on this issue, and the relevant studies will soon be completed,” he said.
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency on Sunday, Ergün said tax incentives would be the first step to encourage companies to produce such environment-friendly models in Turkey. “The existing tax model for vehicles that run on diesel or gas takes the size of the engines as its basis. However, since engine size has nothing to do with electric cars, adopting a new type of formula to determine taxes for such vehicles is a must. In addition, tax rates for these vehicles must be kept at the minimum possible level so that their use will be more attractive,” Ergün said.
In addition to taxes, the minister said a set of incentives are required for charging stations, too. “Establishing a charging station is not too costly. Even existing gas stations have the ability to create facilities to charge electric cars. But changing the batteries is relatively more costly, and cooperation between electricity distributors, local administrations and gas stations is needed. Establishing this cooperative mechanism is also easy, since many countries have already implemented such a scheme,” he said.
As another incentive, the minister mentioned replacing a sizeable part of the state’s vehicle fleets with electric cars. For instance, the cars that the Industry and Trade Ministry uses during its inspection activities may be upgraded to electric cars, Ergün noted.
He recalled that the first step in the domestic electric car market has been taken by Renault and added that the company will start producing its Fluence model in local plants within the next year. Other car manufacturers may also follow Renault and bring the same technology to their Turkish operations, the minister noted. In such a case, Turkey will rapidly become a production and export center of these environment-friendly vehicles, he said.
