Five of the top 10 best-selling brands in the passenger car market are produced in Turkey, with Renault, which has been manufacturing in the country for 50 years, ranking first in the list. This trend shows that consumers prefer cars produced by Turkish workers and engineers.
The market share of imported automobiles has fallen by about 11.4 percent in the last five years, dropping from 77.9 percent in 2013 to 70 percent in 2017 and to 66.5 percent in January-October 2018. The share of domestic automobiles produced in Turkey, on the other hand, rose to 33.5 percent. Recent passenger car investments in the automobile have led to a decrease in the market share of imported automobiles.
One of the leading automotive companies in Turkey, Tofaş, started to manufacture passenger cars in its factory in Bursa with the Fiat Egea sedan, while Oyak Renault increased the number of its models to two with the Renault Megane sedan. Meanwhile, Toyota started to produce the new SUV model C-HR as well as the Corolla sedan in its Sakarya factory. With the passenger cars produced by Hyundai Assan and Honda, the number of domestic models sold in Turkey increased.
The imported-domestic balance in the market has changed with the recent figures. Consumers held the most important role in this change as they preferred the brands that were produced in Turkey. The data of the Automotive Industry Association also proves this argument.
Accordingly, for the January-October period, there are five brands that are produced in Turkey among the top 10 best-selling brands. Renault, which has been producing in Turkey for 50 years, ranks first in the list of the best-selling brands with 61,820 units. Similarly, Fiat, which also has investments in Turkey, comes third with 29,727 units, followed by Hyundai with 27,913, Honda with 22,435 and Toyota with 22,268 units.
The imported-domestic balance is changing in the passenger car trade but not enough. The number of automobiles produced in Turkey must increase in order to further reduce the share of imported autos.
As in the world, demand for SUV models in Turkey is increasing. In the last four years, the SUV market has grown at a high rate of 63.9 percent in Turkey. SUV sales, which stood at 74,000 units in 2014, rose to 122,000 units in 2017. In the January-October period of 2018, the market share of SUVs rose to 20.6 percent, amounting to 78,179 units in sales. During this period, the best-selling SUV model was the Nissan Qashqai with 10,722 units, followed by the Dacia Duster with 9,653 and the Peugeot 3008 with 6,359 units.
In the January-October period, the sedan auto market share was 50.7 percent. Most Turkish consumers preferred sedan models. During this period, eight of Turkey's top 10 best-selling models were sedans, four of which were produced in Turkey. Among the models produced in Turkey, 24,217 units of the Renault Megane sedan were sold in the first 10 months, followed by the Fiat Egea sedan with 23,740 units, the Honda Civic Sedan with 17,656 and the Toyota Corolla sedan with 16,351 units.
