Auto sales leap 115 pct in July

ISTANBUL

A total of 112,459 passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) were sold in July, marking a robust 115.4 percent increase from a year ago.

The numbers pointed to the highest ever July sales.

As availability problems are largely resolved more cars entered the market, consumers are anticipating higher car prices in the coming months that’s why they increased their purchases of vehicles, people from the auto industry said, explaining the strong July sales number.

Passenger car sales grew more than 109 percent year-on-year to nearly 86,000, while the annual increase in light commercial vehicles was 138 percent, data from the Automotive Distributors’ and Mobility Association (ODMD) showed.

The expansion in the passenger car market slowed from 68.5 percent in May to 40.1 percent in June.

Data from the association showed that passenger car sales last month were 79.5 percent higher than the 10-year average.

Last month electric vehicle sales rose by a staggering 1,392 percent from July 2022 to 4,013, which accounted for 4.7 percent of all vehicle sales.

From January to July, a total of 17,307 EVs were sold on the local market, marking a 584 percent increase from the same period of last year.

Türkiye’s indigenous electric carmaker Togg said it delivered 627 cars to their owners in July, which brought the number of total deliveries of its T10X model to 1,435.

"We consolidated our market leader position in the electric C-SUV segment,” the company said on Twitter.

Hybrid car sales in the first seven months of 2023 grew at a slower pace of 63 percent to a little more than 53,000.

In January-July, total vehicles sales - including passenger cars and LCVs - increase by 63.1 percent to 668,828.

The passenger car market expanded at 62 percent as 516,288 cars were sold, LCV sales were up 68 percent to 152,540.