Türkiye’s decision to back 33 mobility projects with 64 billion Turkish liras signals a widening industrial strategy that extends well beyond electric vehicles. By supporting aerospace propulsion, 5G infrastructure, connected transport and urban electric mobility, Ankara is seeking to localize technologies that determine where value is captured across the next generation of transport. For foreign investors, the opportunity lies not only in vehicle assembly, but in batteries, electronics, software, communications, advanced materials and supplier partnerships. The central question is whether public support can translate into commercially competitive, export-ready production.
A Broader Definition of Mobility
The 64 billion-lira figure was disclosed on November 9, 2026, based on data compiled by Türkiye’s Ministry of Industry and Technology and reported by Hürriyet Daily News. The funding covers 33 projects under the Technology-Oriented Industry Move Program, commonly known as the Technology Move or HAMLE program.
Geographically, the portfolio follows Türkiye’s established industrial map. Anadolu Agency reported that nine projects are located in Kocaeli, a major automotive and chemicals center, while Bursa and Ankara each host four. Samsun has three projects, Eskişehir and İzmir have two each, and the remaining investments are distributed across Istanbul, Tekirdağ, Balıkesir, Manisa, Sakarya, Düzce and Konya.
Three disclosed awards illustrate the program’s broad scope. Turkish Aerospace Industries, or TUSAŞ, received 10 billion liras for the design and development of a next-generation turbofan engine intended for potential use in civil aviation, unmanned aircraft, ships and jet platforms. The work is expected to cover conceptual and detailed design, qualification and preparation for serial production.
Ulak Haberleşme was allocated 4 billion liras to develop and manufacture 5G base stations and related equipment. According to Anadolu Agency, the project includes 5G-compatible base stations, software-defined wide-area networking products and components supporting cellular vehicle-to-everything, or C-V2X, communications.
Volta Motor received 2 billion liras for a localized, rechargeable four-seat mini electric car intended for short-distance urban transport. This project is closer to conventional e-mobility, but its inclusion alongside aerospace and communications shows that Ankara defines mobility as an integrated technological system.
The 64 billion liras should not automatically be interpreted as a single, immediate cash expenditure. Turkish investment support can combine grants, tax reductions, credit support, social-security relief, land allocation and exemptions on eligible machinery. Investors therefore need project-level documentation before determining the present value, disbursement timetable and conditions attached to each award.
From Import Substitution to Technology Ownership
The 33 mobility projects form part of a much larger industrial-policy portfolio. Ministry figures cited by Hürriyet Daily News put total support under the Technology Move program at 195 billion liras across 213 projects. Mobility consequently represents roughly one-third of the reported support by value, indicating its strategic importance.
The program identifies priority products by examining factors including import dependence, demand, technological complexity and export potential. TÜBİTAK, Türkiye’s scientific and technological research council, describes HAMLE as an integrated mechanism combining research support with production investment. Successful projects are expected to move beyond prototypes and enter commercial manufacturing.
That distinction matters. Türkiye has long been a major assembly and component-production base, but the technological transition toward electric, connected and software-defined vehicles could weaken established advantages if critical intellectual property remains abroad. Battery cells, power electronics, vehicle operating systems, sensors and advanced materials account for a growing share of vehicle value.
A 2025 analysis by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs warned that Türkiye could remain concentrated in lower-value assembly if batteries, inverters and software were merely imported and integrated locally. The new project portfolio appears designed to address that risk by supporting domestic design capabilities and critical components.
The strategy also overlaps with HIT-30, Türkiye’s high-technology investment initiative. The Ministry of Industry and Technology lists new-energy vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, mobility batteries, electric high-speed rail systems, micro-mobility aircraft and unmanned vehicles among HIT-30’s priority areas. Its published framework sets aside support budgets of $5 billion for electric vehicles and $4.5 billion for batteries.
Under the official 2026 mobility-sector presentation, prospective vehicle projects generally require annual capacity of at least 150,000 units and an R&D center. Battery investments are expected to include cell production, at least 5 gigawatt-hours of capacity and their own R&D operations. These thresholds favor well-capitalized international manufacturers and consortium structures rather than small standalone entrants.
A Large Market and an Export Platform
The industrial policy is being deployed into a substantial existing manufacturing base. Türkiye’s Investment and Finance Office reports that the country produced 1.42 million vehicles in 2025, making it Europe’s fifth-largest automotive producer and its largest commercial-vehicle producer. Approximately 75 percent of production was exported, with more than one million vehicles shipped abroad.
The supplier network is equally significant. The Investment and Finance Office counts approximately 1,100 component suppliers, more than 250 international suppliers using Türkiye as a production base, and localization rates of between 50 and 70 percent at original-equipment manufacturers. As of June 2026, the country had 169 automotive R&D and design centers.
Export performance provides evidence of the sector’s scale. The Uludağ Automotive Industry Exporters’ Association said automotive exports rose 11.6 percent to a record $41.5 billion in 2025. European Union markets accounted for $30.11 billion, or 72.5 percent of the total. Germany alone purchased $6.61 billion.
Domestic demand is also moving rapidly toward electrification. Data from the Automotive Distributors and Mobility Association showed that fully electric passenger-car sales reached 189,868 in 2025, nearly doubling from the previous year and taking about 17 percent of the car market. Total passenger-car sales exceeded 1.08 million.
Charging infrastructure is expanding alongside the fleet. A policy paper prepared through the Turkish-German Energy Partnership, using Energy Market Regulatory Authority data, counted 31,433 public charging points at the end of June 2025, including 13,290 direct-current points. By October 2025, the national total had approached 37,000, according to figures reported by Anadolu Agency.
These trends create demand for charging hardware, grid services, fleet-management software, maintenance, battery diagnostics and recycling. They also strengthen the commercial case for local production. A foreign supplier entering Türkiye can potentially serve both a growing domestic market and established export-oriented manufacturers.
Incentives Come With Performance Obligations
Türkiye overhauled its investment incentive system through Presidential Decree No. 9903, issued on May 30, 2025. UNCTAD’s Investment Policy Monitor said the system can provide customs and value-added-tax exemptions on machinery, corporate tax reductions, social-security support, financing assistance and land allocation. Certain programs may also subsidize part of eligible machinery expenditure.
Foreign-owned companies can generally benefit on the same basis as domestic investors, but the investment must be implemented through an eligible Turkish entity or branch. The Investment and Finance Office said 432 incentive certificates were issued to international investors in 2025, covering projects worth 109.5 billion liras and an anticipated 16,700 jobs.
Eligibility alone does not make support automatic. Technology-oriented applications are assessed against defined product lists, R&D content, technological readiness, production capacity, value added, import substitution and export potential. Large HIT-30 projects require a minimum fixed investment of 2 billion liras, according to the government’s published incentive-system guide.
For a foreign investor, incorporation and corporate structuring therefore affect more than legal presence. They influence ownership of intellectual property, treatment of shareholder funding, eligibility of imported equipment, transfer pricing, dividend repatriation and the allocation of obligations between a Turkish subsidiary and its overseas parent.
The incentive certificate must also match the project’s actual machinery list, location, capacity, financing plan and employment commitments. Material deviations can require ministry approval. This makes legal and tax compliance, government relations and project management integral to realizing the expected incentive value. A nominal tax benefit is of limited use if a project misses its completion deadline, imports equipment under the wrong customs classification or fails to document eligible expenditure.
Execution Risks Beyond the Incentive Package
Recent experience shows that investment agreements require sustained execution. Türkiye signed a widely publicized agreement with Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturer BYD in July 2024 for a proposed $1 billion plant with annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles. The facility was initially expected to begin production by the end of 2026 and create up to 5,000 direct jobs.
By 2026, however, progress had fallen behind expectations. Anadolu Agency reported that the Ministry of Industry and Technology suspended BYD’s access to incentives at the beginning of the year because planned milestones had not been achieved, while emphasizing that the investment agreement and the company’s obligations remained valid. The episode illustrates the difference between an announced package and an operational factory.
Macroeconomic conditions add another layer of risk. Lira volatility and elevated inflation can change the real value of lira-denominated support, imported machinery costs, working-capital requirements and wage budgets. Investors need financial models that separate foreign-currency capital expenditure from local operating costs and test the timing of tax benefits under different profitability scenarios.
Export-oriented producers must also prepare for European regulation. Türkiye’s Ministry of Trade notes that the EU Battery Regulation will progressively impose carbon-footprint, recycled-content, due-diligence, labeling and information requirements. From August 2028, covered electric-vehicle batteries are expected to carry documentation identifying their cobalt, lithium, nickel and lead content and the proportion sourced from recycled material.
The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism initially applies directly to products including steel and aluminum rather than complete vehicles, but those inputs are central to automotive supply chains. Carbon accounting, renewable-energy procurement and supplier traceability will increasingly affect the competitiveness of Turkish-made components entering Europe.
These issues create practical work for market-entry teams before capital is committed. Investors need site comparisons covering logistics, organized industrial-zone infrastructure, workforce availability, power access and proximity to customers. Import-export planning must address customs classifications, rules of origin and documentation under the EU-Türkiye Customs Union. Government relations are important for coordinating with the Industry and Technology Ministry, municipalities, energy regulators and organized industrial-zone administrations.
What This Means for Foreign Investors
The 64 billion-lira mobility portfolio confirms that Türkiye wants international capital to contribute to a deeper domestic technology ecosystem, not simply add assembly capacity. Attractive opportunities are likely to emerge in battery materials, power electronics, connected-vehicle systems, charging equipment, aerospace components, testing, recycling and advanced manufacturing.
Investors should begin with a market-entry assessment that identifies the relevant customers, competing local suppliers, localization expectations and export destinations. The next step is an incentive map comparing the Technology Move, HIT-30, regional programs, R&D support and organized industrial-zone advantages. Incentive assumptions should be validated before the investment location, machinery contracts and financing structure become difficult to change.
A Turkish company or branch must then be incorporated and structured around tax, intellectual-property and financing requirements. Legal and tax compliance should cover transfer pricing, customs, employment, product certification, environmental permits and ongoing incentive reporting. Import-export planning must align equipment purchases and future shipments with customs and origin rules.
Government relations and regulatory liaison are especially important where projects cross institutional boundaries, as charging, connected mobility and industrial construction often do. Expo and trade-fair representation can support supplier discovery and customer validation before a full commercial presence is established. Finally, on-the-ground project management is needed to coordinate land, permits, contractors, machinery installation and incentive milestones.
An FDI advisory firm such as fdiconsultancy.com can integrate these workstreams, but the investment case must remain commercially sound without relying solely on headline support. The strongest projects will be those that combine Türkiye’s manufacturing base and domestic demand with proprietary technology, measurable local value creation and a credible route into European and regional export markets.