Turkish Auto Market kept falling down in 2019 hit by a negative economic environment. New car sales have been 489.060, down 21.2%. Fiat gained the market lead, pushed by the Egea, while almost all the rest of the ranking crumbled.
Economic Environment
Turkey economic landscape has improved somewhat in recent months as the economy returned to growth on an annual basis for the first time in a year in the third quarter. This came on the back of solid public consumption growth and a revival of private consumption, buttressed by a strong credit impulse amid laxer monetary policy. However, recovering domestic activity led to a surge in imports in the quarter, and the external sector consequently weighed on the economy.
Turning to the final quarter of 2019, annual economic growth should have accelerated further, partly due to a supportive base effect. Moreover, annual industrial output and retail sales grew at strong clips in October, while business sentiment returned to optimism in the quarter. Less positively, despite a slight improvement relative to Q3 the manufacturing PMI remained below the 50-threshold, signifying tough operating conditions in the sector.
Market Trend
The automotive industry is the largest industrial sector in Turkey and is the hub for several European and Japanese manufacturers which invested in production facilities to cover the domestic demand while exporting in Europe, Levant and North Africa.
In the last decade the stability of the market has been compromised with strong oscillation of Turkish lira which have changed the convenience to export while the domestic market is heavily depending by the economic trend which suffer from the political structure, now concentrated in the hands of a single man.
Looking at recent years domestic market trend, it is easy to see strong crisis hitting the market periodically.
In the 2014 the marked felt down before to recover in the period 2015-2016. In the second part of the 2017 a new crisis approached the market and in that year sales declined moderately (-2.8%) before to collapse in the 2018, losing 35.1% and in the current year.
The almost negative economic environment has hit the consumer demand and the market registered for the first time below the half-million score since 2009. Indeed, total sales have been 489.060, down 21.2%.
Reading the ranking by brand is a real nightmare, with all top 10 brands falling down sharply, except for the Fiat and Audi.
Indeed, the new market leader was Fiat, raising its market share by 4 points from last year, overtaking the former leader Renault, falling down at 13.3%.
Awful performances were registered also by Volkswagen and Ford, which respectively held 9.9% and 9.6% of share, while Audi ran against the negative trend, reaching 4.1%.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 Models
