Turkey unveiled its first fully domestically-produced car on Friday, saying it aimed to eventually produce up to 175,000 a year of the electric vehicle in a project expected to cost 22 billion lire ($3.7 billion) over 13 years.

Axar.az reports citing the National that the project has been a long-time goal of President Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party as a demonstration of the country's growing economic power.

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, Mr. Erdogan said Turkey aimed not only to sell the car domestically but also wanted it to become a global brand, starting with Europe.

Erdogan said the charging infrastructure for electric cars would be ready nationwide by 2022.

Five models of the car will be produced, the statement said, adding the government had guaranteed to buy 30,000 of the vehicles by 2035.