Turkey: Auto sales up over 80% in September

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey’s passenger car and light commercial vehicle (LCV) sales jumped rapidly by 82.35% year-on-year in September, the country’s Automotive Distributors' Association (ODD) announced on Wednesday.

The country's vehicle sales totaled 41,992 during the month, the association said in a statement.

While the passenger car sales doubled in the month on an annual basis -- from 17,595 to 35,308 -- LCV sales rose by 23.03% to reach 6,684.

Meanwhile, the automotive market narrowed by 39.3% in the first nine months of 2019.

A total of 281,309 vehicles were sold in the 9-month period, down from 463,456 vehicles in the same period last year.

Passenger car sales fell by 36.92% to 228,628, and LCV sales dropped by 47.84% to 52,681 in the January-September period.

Some 55.8% of all 228,628 automobiles have diesel engines, while the share of vehicles with petrol engines was 36.65% -- autogas took 4.15% share, hybrid 3.34% and electricity 0.06%.

While car sales for almost all engine types posted declines year-on-year in the first nine months, hybrid and electricity cars sales increased by 142.2% and 4.92%, respectively.

Among LCV sales, van type vehicles’ share was 71.45% in the same period, following by light trucks (12.4%), minibuses (8.5%), and pick-ups (7.7%).

Prominent automotive manufacturers including Fiat, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes, Renault, and Toyota have manufacturing operations in Turkey which is among the world’s top auto sale markets.

In Turkey, a total of 620,937 automobiles and light commercial vehicles were sold last year, down from 956,194 in 2017.