Turkish car market shrinks 10 percent

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Turkey’s cars and light commercial vehicles sector, an engine for local industries, shrank 10 percent last year from 2011, according to data provided by Mustafa Bayraktar, chairman of the executive board of the Automotive Distributors Association (ODD), yesterday.

Sales of automobiles and light commercial vehicles last year stood at 777,761, Bayraktar said during an industry award ceremony in Istanbul. Car sales dropped 6.27 percent to 556,280, while light commercial vehicle sales slumped 18.25 percent to 221,481 items, signaling a slowdown in trade.

The sum of car and light commercial vehicle sales dropped nearly 10 percent to 115,400 in December 2012 when compared to December 2011, Bayraktar noted.

Only 184 cars with electric engines were sold last year.