TEKNOFEST Efficiency Challenge Electric Vehicle Races Have Started

The fierce competition has begun in the International Efficiency Challenge Electric Vehicle Races held at the TÜBİTAK Campus in the Gebze district of Kocaeli within the scope of the TEKNOFEST Aviation, Space and Technology Festival. Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır, who waved the starting flag of the first race, said, “Those who participated in these competitions in previous years have now established technology enterprises and are powering Turkey’s national technology journey.”

The International Efficiency Challenge Electric Vehicle Races organized within the scope of TEKNOFEST Aviation, Space and Technology Festival at the TÜBİTAK Campus in the Gebze district have begun. Within the scope of the competition, battery-powered vehicles compete in the ‘Electromobile’ category, while hydrogen-powered electric vehicles compete in the ‘Hydromobile’ category. In addition, the ‘High School Electric Vehicle Race’ category is also evaluated within the scope of this competition. This year, 165 Electromobile, 75 Hydromobile and 391 High School Electric Vehicle teams participated in the competition. Of the teams whose applications were reviewed, 36 Electromobile, 14 Hydromobile and 23 High School Electric Vehicle teams made it to the finals. On the start day of the races, Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır and TÜBİTAK President Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal also came to the area. Minister Kacır, who chatted with the teams and wished them success, then started the first race.

‘1 MILLION 650 THOUSAND OF OUR YOUTH APPLIED’

Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır said, “As every year, the wind of TEKNOFEST started to blow all around Turkey in August. Every year, with the participation of hundreds of thousands of our young people, we are all together undertaking a unique event in the world. TEKNOFEST Aviation, Space and Technology Festival has been held in our country every year since 2018 as the world’s largest festival and together with more than 100 stakeholders, we ensure that hundreds of thousands of our young people are included in Turkey’s National Technology Jam journey in technology competitions within the scope of TEKNOFEST. This year, we broke new records together at TEKNOFEST. 1 million 650 thousand young people applied to our 49 competitions from all 81 cities and 96 countries in 790 thousand teams. We are offering more than 30 million liras in awards and more than 50 million liras in technical support to the competing teams at TEKNOFEST this year.”

‘NOT JUST IN THEORY’

Minister Kacır said, “TEKNOFEST competitions play a very important role in the training of technological entrepreneurs who will increase Turkey’s National Technology Move and in the development of the human resources we need in the leading institutions of the National Technology Move. Today, with our Electromobile and Hydromobile competitions that we have started here, we are training human resources who adopt innovative approaches in mobility technologies and who experience them not only in theory but also in practical applications. Those who participated in these competitions in the past years have now established technology enterprises and are powering Turkey’s national technology journey.”

COMPETITIONS WILL BE HELD IN 11 CITIES FOR 2 MONTHS

Stating that the competitions will bring very important gains to the future of Turkey, Kacır said, “This year, more than 600 teams participated in our Electromobile, Hydromobile and High School Electric Vehicle Competition and 73 of these teams qualified for the finals. Here we are at the TÜBİTAK Research Center campus with nearly a thousand friends in our 73 teams. We believe that the young people who grow up in these teams will be leading Turkey’s journey to the future in TÜBİTAK Research Institutes, in the leading institutions of the National Technology Move, in the star organizations of our defense industry and of course in the technology initiatives they establish. This year, our TEKNOFEST competitions started with the Turkish Natural Language Processing Competition in Bilişim Vadisi last week. This competition, as an artificial intelligence-based competition, will contribute to the Turkish Grand Language Model Project that we aim to implement in the coming period, and provides very important gains for the development of our human resources. Here are the Electromobile-Hydromobile competitions today, the Hyperloop competition from tomorrow and the upcoming period in Istanbul, The competitions that we will organize in 11 cities of Turkey in Kocaeli, Izmir, Antalya, Ankara, Isparta, Aksaray, Erzurum, Kahramanmaraş, Adana and Mersin for the next 2 months will bring very important gains to the future of Turkey and will provide an opportunity for our youth to grow and meet with us. The TEKNOFEST wind will blow strongly all around Anatolia this year as it does every year and God willing, TEKNOFEST Adana will be the stage where this wind will reach its peak between October 2-6. I congratulate all our young people participating in the competitions in advance. I wholeheartedly congratulate our valuable academicians, teachers who support them, their very valuable families who are always with our young people and all our stakeholders, especially our Turkey Technology Team Foundation, who lead all these competitions,” he said.

‘WE ARE THE 3RD LARGEST AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURER IN EUROPE’

Minister Kacır, who stated that Turkey is one of the leading countries in the automotive sector, said, “We are the 3rd largest automobile manufacturer in Europe. We are the largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in Europe and as you know, our goal is to be the leading country in the region, especially in the new generation automotive sector. To this end, we aim to both ensure that our current manufacturers make investments in new generation vehicles and attract new brand investments to Turkey. Turkey’s automobile Togg has actually been the most valuable and important step we have taken in our country regarding new generation vehicle technologies. Then, the fact that BYD, the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, has chosen Turkey for investment really shows Turkey’s opportunities and capabilities in this field and the opportunity it offers to investors in the most concrete way; it would be another incident.”

‘TURKEY HAS VERY IMPORTANT ADVANTAGES TO OFFER TO INVESTORS’

Stating that Turkey offers very important advantages to investors, Kacır noted the following:

“Hopefully, in the upcoming period, Turkey will continue this journey with the 8 global brands in Turkey, a total of 13 brands that are manufacturing and new globally pioneering brands in this field. Turkey has very important advantages to offer to investors. Turkey offers investors the opportunity to reach a population of over 1 billion with its unique position as a Customs Union member country and free trade agreements signed with 23 different countries, but I think the most valuable element we have is our young, dynamic, hard-working human resources. It is very important and meaningful for this element to be activated and for this potential to turn into value. When I talk to our competitor teams here at TEKNOFEST competitions, I see this; our young people who were raised in the successful teams of the previous year have now established their own enterprises this year and continue on their paths in the ecosystem with the entrepreneurial hat. I hope that in the upcoming period, both our tech startups will continue to grow from these competitions and the brands that prefer Turkey for investment will have the opportunity to meet with our young people who are raised in the best way here.”