Automotive market expands in June

ISTANBUL

Nearly 81,000 passenger cars and light commercial vehicles were sold in Türkiye last month, pointing to a 1 percent increase from a year ago, according to data from the Automotive Distributors’ Association (ODD).

The country’s automotive market expanded 19 percent in May.

Passenger car sales grew nearly 3 percent in June, after rising 20 percent in the previous month, to 64,134 units, while light commercial vehicle sales, which grew 15.7 percent on an annual basis in May and 10.4 percent in April, contracted 5.5 percent last month to nearly 17,000 units.

From January to June, some 358,000 vehicles were sold in the country, marking a 9.3 percent decline from the same period of last year.

Passenger car sales were down 10.3 percent year-on-year to 279,000 units and light commercial vehicle sales declined by 5.6 percent in the first half of the year compared with January-June 2021 to 79,600 units.

In the passenger cars markets, 89.1 percent of the vehicles sold consisted of the vehicles in the A, B and C segments, the ODD said, noting that the vehicles in those segments have lower tax rates.

SUVs were the most favored models, accounting for 39.7 percent of all passenger cars.

The share of gasoline and diesel cars in total sales was 70.4 percent and 16.9 percent, respectively.

In June, electric vehicle sales soared more than 82 percent to 499 units, but still accounted for only 0.8 percent of all car sales. In the first six months of the year, 2,263 electric vehicles were sold, rising 154 percent from a year ago.

The prices of some electric vehicle models in Türkiye are expected to decline following a new value-added tax (VAT) regulation.

Parliament recently passed legislation regarding the VAT levied on electric vehicles.

According to the new regulation, the VAT rate on mid-segment electric vehicles, including domestically developed Togg’s SUVs, will be around 10 percent.

This will help electric vehicles compete with regular gasoline and diesel-powered cars in the local market and also support Türkiye to meet its emissions target.

Five electric vehicles out of a total of 18 cars offered in the local market will benefit from the new VAT regulation and the prices of certain models are expected to decline as much as 30 percent or 380,000 Turkish Liras for certain models.

For instance, after the new tax regulation takes effect, the price of Hyundai Kona will decline from the current 895,000 liras (with the VAT rate of 25 percent) to 786,000 liras and Mini Cooper SE will be sold for 820,000 liras, down from the current 1.2 million liras.
But, the VAT rate on the electric models BMW, Jaguar, Kia, Mercedes, and Porsche will remain at 60 percent.

Meanwhile, 15 companies, including Togg’s Trugo, have obtained licenses to set up a network of charging stations. Presently, there is 3,500 electric vehicle charging stations in Türkiye. The number of plugs to charge those vehicles are projected to increase to 12,500 in 2023 and further rise to 30,000 in 2025 and to 160,000 by 2030.