ISTANBUL - Turkey's TOGG consortium, which is building the country's first fully domestically-produced car, said it has signed an agreement to partner with Farasis for the use of the Chinese company's battery cells in the range of TOGG products.

Turkey unveiled the consortium's first car model at the end of last year, and aims to eventually produce up to 175,000 a year of its electric vehicles in a project expected to cost 22 billion lira ($3.7 billion) over 13 years.

Under the latest agreement, battery cells will be provided by Farasis and the battery modules and packs will be jointly developed and produced in Turkey, the TOGG statement said.

It said the letter of intent signed with electric vehicle battery maker Farasis also involved the development of energy storage solutions for Turkey and surrounding countries.

TOGG said chose Farasis as its business partner for the development and supply of Li-ion batteries, one of the most fundamental components of the vehicles it is developing.

The car project has long been a goal of President Tayyip Erdogan as a demonstration of the country's growing economic power. He has said the charging infrastructure for electric cars would be ready nationwide by 2022.

(Reporting by Ceyda Caglayan and Can Sezer; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer) ((daren.butler@tr.com; +90-212-350 7053; Reuters Messaging: daren.butler.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))