Transport

Turkish electric vehicle sales up 39% in a year

December 9, 2024, 1:19 PM

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan drives a Togg car at the opening ceremony of a factory to begin mass production

Domestic Togg brand top seller
Almost 1 in 6 sales now EVs
Pressure to build infrastructure

Turkey’s electric vehicle market is expanding rapidly, with sales increasing almost 39 percent year on year as new models become available and supporting infrastructure is put in place.

The rise is in contrast to conventional car sales, which are showing modest growth compared to their greener rivals.

Turkey is also bucking global trends, which has seen a slowing of EV sales growth in recent years, consulting firm Accenture reported last month.

Around 14 million EVs were sold globally in 2023. While this was an increase of 35 percent year-on-year, it was much slower than the 55 percent recorded in 2022, and the 121 percent annual growth seen in 2021.

While Turkish passenger and light commercial vehicle sales in the first eleven months of this year fell 0.5 percent, with car purchases marginally up on an annualised basis and commercial vehicle roll-out down 4.4 percent, the electric vehicle (EV) segment showed strong growth.

A total of 83,000 EVs left Turkey’s lots between January and November, a 38.6 percent increase year on year, while sales for November were 13,550 units, almost 15 percent of all vehicle sales, according to data issued December 4 by the Automotive Distributors’ and Mobility Association.

The strong November sales meant the number of EVs on Turkey’s roads topped the 160,000 mark, double the 80,000 at the end of 2023.

The driving force in EV sales remained the domestically produced Togg brand, which sold 23,200 units to the end of November. The US marque Tesla came a distant second with 9,200, while the German pair BMW and Mercedes sold 8,000 and 4,500, respectively.

Anıl Şentürk, the chair of the automotive sector committee of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO), said the appetite for EVs was growing in Turkey, with penetration rates now higher than in Europe.

“The main reason for having this high market share is the local vehicle, the Togg, which is acting like a lever and lifting the EV market,” he told AGBI. “And with China’s BYD brand looking to make a push into Turkey, and new models being introduced, there is certainly the demand for EVs.”

EVs are a key component in the Turkish government’s campaign to reduce factors contributing to climate change.

In mid-November, the minister for environment, urbanisation and climate change, Murat Kurum, announced that the government aimed to have 4.2 million EVs on Turkey’s roads by 2035, with 75 percent of these to be domestically produced, part of broader plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

If it is to achieve this, Şentürk said, investments in infrastructure will have to be stepped up.

“Today Turkey has sufficient infrastructure in place to charge the current numbers of EVs it has,” he said. “But if the number of EVs increases, is the infrastructure enough? No, it isn’t.”

Critically, there is a problem with distribution of infrastructure, with charging stations and services not evenly spread across the country to meet future needs.

“Currently, EVs are more widely used in the west and central Turkey, and thus charging facilities are mostly based in these areas. This is why we do not have a problem now, but when it comes to the question of whether it is enough in the future the answer is no, it can and must be better,” Şentürk said.