ANKARA
Bahattin Gonultas
The Turkish domestic market for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) rose by 10 percent to 853,378 in 2013 from 777,761 individual recorded sales in 2012.
According to statistics provided by the Automotive Distributors' Association (ODD), car sales in 2013 increased to 664,655, a climb of 19.48 percent compared to 2012. The total sales of LCVs dropped down to 188,723 with a 14.79 percent fall from 221,481 in 2012.
In December 2013, the total number of sales within the Turkish automotive market was 129,718, 101,199 of which were cars and 28,519 LCVs. Car sales for December 2013 increased by 25.05 percent compared to December 2012 while the decrease in demand for LCVs was almost identical at 17.27 percent in the same period.
Compared to 2012, 2013 witnessed an increase of 21.5 percent in the sales of vehicles below 1600cc and 10.8 percent in the sales of passenger cars over 2000cc.
On the other hand, the sales of passenger cars with a 1600-2000cc motor volume decreased by 7.9 percent.
The Turkish Passenger Car and Light Commercial Vehicle market increased in Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 in 2013 by 12.41 percent, 11.84 percent, 7.64 percent and 8.09 percent, respectively.
According to the average emission values in 2013, passenger cars falling within the range of 100-120 gr/km accounted for the highest share with 238,816 units (35.9 percent).
The share of diesel passenger car sales at the end of 2013 was 58.8 percent, while the percent for automatic gearbox passenger cars was recorded at 38.9 percent.
86 percent of the segment distribution of the market consisted of vehicles in A, B and C segments which have a lower tax rate. The C segment had the highest number of units of sales with a 51 percent share (339,034 units) and sedan passenger cars were the most preferred (with a 44.6 percent share and 296,240 units).
31 electric cars below 85kW were sold in the local market in 2013.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
