Türkiye among Europe’s top 10 EV markets

ISTANBUL

With more than 60,000 electric vehicles sold this year and sales leaping nearly 870 percent, Türkiye is presently ranking eighth largest market for EVs in Europe.

Data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and Türkiye’s Automotive Distributors’ and Mobility Association (ODMD) show that Türkiye recorded the fastest increase in electric vehicles in the world in 2023.

In the January-November period of 2023, a total of 60,101 EVs were sold in the country, putting it ahead of Italy (59,462 sales) and Denmark (52,886 sales) in Europe.

Germany ranked first at nearly 470,000 sales, which grew 28 percent from a year ago, while EV sales in the U.K. increased by 27.5 percent in the first 11 months of 2023 to 287,000.

France and the Netherlands were the third and fourth largest EV markets in Europe, with 265,000 and more than 103,000 cars sold, respectively.

The share of EVs in the total car market was 16.3 percent in Europe as of the end of November, while it was 7.1 percent in Türkiye, which was significantly higher than the market share of 1.2 percent EVs captured in the same month of 2022.

In the first 11 months of this year, in terms of motor power, the sales of EVs under 160kW soared more than 1,700 percent from the same period of 2022, with a 69.4 percent share in total electric vehicle sales.

The share of pure electric vehicles in total vehicle sales was 6.5 percent or 54,273, while some 5,900 EVs with extended range were sold, accounting for a 0.7 percent share in total.

In November alone, 11,218 EVs sold in Türkiye, which marked a 780 percent increase compared with the same month of 2022.

The U.S. carmaker Tesla and Togg, Türkiye’s first electric vehicle, entered the market this year, which gave a boost to sales.

Data from ODMD show that 11,600 Tesla cars were sold in the local market, while Togg delivered 13,572 vehicles in the first 11 months of 2023.

Tesla said that they are working on expanding its network of supercharging stations in Türkiye amid complaints about an insufficient number of charging and service stations.

The U.S. carmaker is looking for locations in Ankara, İzmir, Antalya and Istanbul to install new charging stations.

It plans to set up 48 new charging stations on the Istanbul-İzmir highways alone while increasing the number of service vehicles from currently 10 to 20 in the coming months.

Chinese EV brands are also strengthening their presence in the Turkish market. Some 15,000 EVs were imported from China this year.

There were more than 4,200 charging stations across Türkiye as of October.

EV sales in Türkiye are expected to exceed 100,000 units next year.