Portugal’s Web Summit Showcases EVs—Mainly for European Markets

• With a sellout 70,000 plus attendees, the Web Summit is like a smaller version of Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show, with auto content around the edges.

• The C-segment Togg T10X, first shown at CES in 2023, is a two-row crossover with decent Pininfarina styling and excellent fit and finish on the car shown at Web Summit.

• Meanwhile, VW Group’s Škoda Auto brand, also at the Web Summit, is preparing a second, smaller and cheaper electric crossover called the Elroq. It will likely be the smallest and cheapest EV from the VW Group, selling for around 33,000 euros.

Last year, Turkey produced a surprising 1.46 million vehicles, making it the 13th (some sources say 15th) largest global auto producer. Some 85% of the output (including many small cars) goes to destinations in Europe.

Automakers including Renault, Hyundai, Ford, and Toyota operate there. But Turkey has never (aside from the stillborn Devrim, of which four prototypes were built in 1961) produced its own car. Until now.

The Togg T10X is also Turkey’s first battery-electric car, and the crossover SUV was on display at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, last week. With a sellout 70,000 plus attendees, the Web Summit is like a smaller version of Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show, with auto content around the edges.

Togg is the result of five big Turkish companies coming together in 2018. The C-segment T10X, first shown at CES in 2023, is a two-row crossover with decent Pininfarina styling and excellent fit and finish on the car shown at Web Summit.

A door-to-door 29-inch screen brings it up to date. The T10X is only sold in Turkey now, but an impressive 40,000 have reached customers, following 177,000 advance orders in 12 days, according to Ahmet Duran, in charge of the digital experience platform at Togg.

Duran said Turkey has a mature charging network, with 750 fast chargers across the country. The big news is that Togg will launch European sales next year, starting in Germany and then on to France and Italy. It could be competition for the Chinese cars that are becoming thick on the ground there.

No European prices are set, but the bottom line in Turkey is 41,000 Euros for the standard range introductory model and 52,000 for the rear-wheel-drive long range with an 88-kWh battery yielding more than 310 miles (on the forgiving European WLTP cycle).

There are both rear-wheel and all-wheel-drive versions of the T10X, with the latter offering 436 hp, 516 lb-ft of torque, and 0-to-62 mph in 4.8 seconds. The cheaper version with a 52-kWh battery has 218 hp and takes 7.6 seconds to 62 mph. Range is 195 miles. It’s ready for over-the-air updates and comes with a suite of safety technology.

A fastback sedan T10F Togg (with Polestar styling echoes) is on the same platform and was shown at CES in 2024, with more range and speed. It’s got up to 372 miles of range and 0-62 in 4.6 seconds.

The T10F will hit the market in the first quarter of 2025. There are similar standard and long-range versions, and rear- as well as all-wheel drive. The latter has 320 kW on tap from the two batteries, with 160 kW in the single-motor version.

Togg has a “Rush Hour Pilot” assistant feature that allows hands-off driving in heavy traffic up to nine mph, and it’s available on both models.

Turkey has charging startups, too. E-Dison AI partners with charging companies to guide new users through the process, hooking up, and finding a station, with human operators and AI. The company “preemptively identifies problems faced by users in the e-charging domain through visual and data-based AI architecture.”

E-Dison is expanding to Great Britain in early 2025. “Turkey has been an excellent test bed,” said Reyhan Eren, the CEO and co-founder.

Togg wasn’t the only company with electric plans for Europe. Meredith Kelly, the global chief marketing officer for the Volkswagen Group’s Škoda Auto brand, was in Lisbon for the Web Summit. Skoda sells 900,000 cars annually in 100 countries, none of which is the US. It has been the number three brand in Europe.

Kelly told Autoweek the company is preparing a second, smaller and cheaper electric crossover called the Elroq. It will likely be the smallest and cheapest EV from the VW Group, selling for around 33,000 euros. It will appear in the first quarter of 2025, and there are 9,000 pre-orders.

An even cheaper Škoda EV is coming in 2026, the Epiq, on a platform with the VW ID.2, and costing around 25,000 Euros. The company is bullish on EVs. “Our first EV, the Enyaq SUV, has been incredibly successful for us,” said Kelly. Since 2020, Škoda has sold more than 200,000 Enyaqs.

The larger Enyaq, built in the Czech Republic, shares a platform with the VW ID.4 and Audi Q4 e-tron. The top-of-the-range 80 models have 77-kWh batteries, and the base 58 kWh. Range, again WLTP, is between 246 and 339 miles. The price in England for the single-motor base model Enyaq was cited as £38,970 ($49,440), and £52,670 ($66,818) for the dual-motor range topper.

Kelly said customers who bought the Enyaq EV are often new to the brand, but Škoda’s high loyalty rates keeps them on board.

If the price is right, do you think Turkish EVs could find a market in the US? Please comment below.