Turkish automotive sector shines in Europe


European auto market data for the first nine months of the year show that Turkey has risen to sixth place for overall sales and ranked fourth in the sales of light commercial vehicles thanks to the regulations that have been enforced last year, announced by the Automotive Distributors Association (ADA). The automotive market in EU and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries grew 9.2 percent during the January-September period, and the total number of sales was around 12 million, whereas it was around 11.3 million in the same period in 2014.The highest decrease between EU and EFTA countries was seen in Luxembourg, and the three markets that observed the biggest increase in sales in the first nine months of 2015 were Iceland with a 44.2 percent increase, Ireland with 32.2 percent and Portugal with 27.9 percent. The total automobile market in EU and EFTA countries grew 10.4 percent in September when compared to September 2014. Additionally, there were 1.6 million sales in total in September, compared to 1.4 million sales in September 2014. Turkey increased its share in the European automotive market by 38.54 percent and became the sixth-biggest exporter of automobiles among EU and EFTA countries.The total automobile market in EU and EFTA countries increased by 8.8 percent during the January-September period when compared to the same period in 2014, and total sales have increased to 10.7 million from 9.9 million. The total light commercial vehicle market in EU and EFTA countries also increased 11.1 percent in the first nine months of the year, and sales increased from 1.1 million in 2014 to 1.3 million in the January-September period. The increase observed in the light commercial market in September was 13.9 percent when compared to September 2014, and the number of sales increased from 156,784 to 178,613. Turkey's sales to the European light commercial market between January and September increased 51.9 percent.