Vehicle sales remain strong, show industry data

ISTANBUL

Nearly 80,000 passenger cars and light commercial vehicles were sold in Türkiye last month, pointing to a 57 percent increase from a year ago.

This marked a record level of vehicle sales for the month of January.

The passenger car market expanded by 72 percent, the numbers from the Automotive Distributors’ and Mobility Association (ODMD) showed. In January, more than 64,000 passenger cars were sold.

Light commercial vehicle sales were up 15 percent year-on-year to around 16,000 units.

Analysts had expected a slowdown in sales due to higher prices and higher taxes, but the January figures proved otherwise.

What drove the car sales was the special consumption tax exemptions provided to disabled individuals in January, according to experts.

Electric vehicle sales leaped 271 percent last month to 3,973. The share of electric vehicles in total car sales was 6.2 percent.

After delivering 900 cars in November and another 500 in December last year, Tesla sold only 220 Model Y cars in January.

Togg, Türkiye’s first indigenous electric carmaker, delivered 1,625 vehicles last month.

SUVs accounted for 53 percent of all cars sold in Türkiye in January, followed by Sedan models at 30 percent.

Fiat was the top-selling brand at 11,724 units, while Renault came second with 10,000. Volkswagen sold 6,156 vehicles in the country last month.

Last year, Türkiye’s auto market grew more than 57 percent with sales reaching an all-time high of 1.23 million.

In 2023, more than 967,000 passenger cars were sold, pointing to a 63 percent increase.

Electric car sales exploded last year.

According to the data from ODMD, 72,179 electric vehicles were sold in 2023, marking a staggering 833 percent increase from the previous year.