Imported vehicles dominate sales in Turkish auto market

ISTANBUL

The share of imported vehicles in local sales has climbed to 70 percent in the first seven months of 2024, whereas this figure was a little more than 59 percent in 2019.

U.S. electric carmaker Tesla and new Chinese brands, such as Chery, have made significant inroads into the Turkish market, while domestic producers have not yet introduced new models over the past two years. Those factors appear to be the main the reasons for higher share of imported vehicles captured in sales.

Sales in the local auto market were almost unchanged in January-July from a year ago at 698,368 units, according to data from the Automotive Manufacturers’ Association (OSD).

Passenger car sales grew 3 percent to 536,351.

The share of imported passenger cars in the local market was around 73 percent in July alone, whereas this was 73.3 percent for light commercial vehicles last month and 69 percent in the January-July period.

That meant that the 536,000 passenger cars sold in the first seven months of 2024 were imported vehicles.

The share of imported cars in local sales has grown steadily over the past five years. After declining slightly to 59.1 percent in 2020, it rose to 59.8 percent in the following, climbing to 61 percent in 2022. Last year, imported cars captured a 67.8 percent share in local sales.

Experts say the share of domestically produced cars will increase their share in the market in 2025 as they will start to market their new models.

Meanwhile, Türkiye’s auto production declined by 5 percent in January-July from a year ago to 823,636 units, OSD data showed.

In the first seven months of the year, 542,177 passenger cars were manufactured, pointing to a 2 percent year-on-year decline.

Commercial vehicle production shrank by 12 percent compared with the January-July period last year with light commercial vehicle output down 11 percent.

The capacity utilization rate across the local automotive industry was 73 percent, OSD said.

Turkish carmakers shipped nearly 582,000 vehicles to foreign markets in the first seven months of 2024, a 1 percent decline from a year ago, while passenger car exports showed an annual increase of 1 percent. Light commercial vehicle exports of the auto industry, however, fell 5 percent.

The automotive sector was once again the largest exporting industry in January-July, with its export revenues rising 1 percent year-on-year to $20.7 billion. In euro terms, the industry’s exports stood at 18.9 billion euros, the association said.