Automotive sales down 17 percent in August

ISTANBUL

More than 48,000 passenger cars and light commercial vehicles were sold in Türkiye in August, pointing to a 17.3 percent declined from a year ago, according to data from the Automotive Distributors’ Association (ODD).

That followed the 9.1 rise in vehicle sales in the previous month.

Passenger car sales plunged 21.3 percent year-on-year to 35,200 units, after rising 13 percent in July, while light commercial vehicle sales, which dropped 3.1 percent on an annual basis in the previous month, contracted again by 4.3 percent last month to nearly 13.100 units.

From January to June, the market shrank by 8.5 percent from the same period of last year. In the first eight months of the year, a total of 458,450 vehicles were sold.

Passenger car sales were down 9.4 percent year-on-year to around 355,000 units and light commercial vehicle sales declined by 5.2 percent compared with January-June 2021 to 104.000

In the passenger cars markets, 88.3 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.

The share of gasoline and diesel cars in total sales was 70.6 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

In August, electric vehicle sales soared 324 percent from a year ago to 751 units and accounted for percent of all car sales.
In the first eight months of the year, 3,283 electric vehicles were sold, rising 175 percent from a year ago.

Hybrid vehicle sales also exhibited a 14.2 percent rise last month on an annual basis to around 3,900 units. From January to August, hybrid car sales increased by 2.9 percent to 34,265 units, capturing a 9.7 percent share in all vehicle sales.