Türkiye has been shown to have performed better compared to many European Union countries in fully electric car sales in the first two months of this year, according to an Anadolu Agency (AA) report on Thursday, based on industry data.
Accordingly, the sales of fully electric cars reached 8,255 units in January-February, according to the data compiled by AA from the Automotive Distributors and Mobility Association (ODMD).
Looking at the overall sales, the petrol cars ranked first with 97,861 units sold, while hybrid cars came in second with 21,594 units sold in Türkiye during the same period.
Diesel sales stood at 15,910 units, and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) sales were at 1,181 units, according to the data.
Furthermore, while electric vehicle sales stood at 8,255 units when vehicles with an extended range (which operate by running an electric motor with a petrol engine generator to charge the battery) were included, the sales figures for electric cars rose to 9,772.
Extended-range vehicles are also classified as "electric" under the international coding system, Customs Tariff Statistics Position (GTIP).
Car sales in the first two months increased by 49.3% for petrol cars when compared to the same period last year, decreased by 0.5% for diesel and decreased by 43.3% for LPG cars.
During this period, hybrid car sales surged by 113.8% and fully electric car sales soared by 329.5%.
EV share in the car market is up
According to the data obtained by AA, while the share of petrol, diesel and LPG cars in total sales decreased in the January-February period versus the same period the year earlier, the share of electric cars and hybrid cars picked up.
The share of petrol cars in total sales, which was 68.1% in the January-February period of last year, decreased to 66.9% in the first two months of this year. Meanwhile, the share of diesel cars dropped from 16.6% to 10.9%, and the share of LPG cars decreased from 2.2% to 0.8%.
At the same time, the share of fully electric cars increased from 2% to 5.6%, and the share of hybrid cars rose from 10.5% to 14.8%. When considering fully electric, extended-range electric and hybrid cars, electrified vehicles accounted for 21.5% of the total market.
The increasing trend of electric cars in the Turkish car market remains high compared to European markets.
This can be partly attributed to many European and Asian brands introducing their ambitious models to the Turkish market, in addition to the soaring interest in the first domestically produced electric vehicle, Togg, whose sales surpassed 2,800 units in the first two months of the year.
According to ODMD data, Togg, which continues to rise among electric car brands, became the market leader with 1,201 units sold in February, leaving behind BMW and Ssangyong. Its total sales in the first two months reached 2,826 units, compared to only 295 units of Tesla sold during the same period.
Alongside electric cars, the number of hybrid vehicles, another part of electric mobility, is also said to be increasing.
EU sales
Meanwhile, the analysis of data on European electric vehicle market sales showed that Germany stood at the forefront in the number of units sold in the first two months, leaving France closely behind and Belgium in third place.
Germany, with 49,953 units sold, was the leader among the 27-member EU bloc, according to the recent European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) data. The total number of EVs sold in France was 45,842 units and in Belgium, there were 19,380 units. The Netherlands ranked fourth with 17,004 sales and Sweden ranked fifth with 10,165 sales.
The sales in Italy stood at 7,986 units and in Spain at 7,180 units, while Denmark also quoted high with 8,100 units sold and its neighboring Finland sold 2,917 units of electric cars during the same period.
With 8,255 fully electric cars sold in the two months of 2024, Türkiye was positioned at a high sixth place among EU countries, surpassing countries like Italy, Spain, Austria and EV-friendly Denmark and Finland.
Looking at the data and the growth rate of the market, Türkiye, closely following Sweden, appears to be one of the closest candidates to rank among the top five countries in electric car sales. Industry representatives predict electric car sales across Türkiye could reach 120,000 units this year.