Automotive sector exports rose to $13.46 billion in the January-July period, an increase of 11 percent compared to the same period last year. In addition, the sector's exports increased by 5.21 percent in July despite the nine-day holiday and problems developing in neighboring countries. While automotive exports were $1,641,980 billion in July 2015, it hit $1.73 billion in the same period of 2016.

According to the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) database, the automotive sector exported to 180 countries and autonomous regions along with 12 free zones during the first seven months of the year. The automotive sector closed the season as the leader by a landslide with the biggest share of Turkey's total exports, at 18.1 percent, reaching $80.45 billion during the first seven months of the year, a drop of 4.9 percent. Following the automotive sector, the apparel sector came in second with a 13.4 percent share followed by the chemicals and chemical products sector with 10.7 percent.

Only European Union countries and the U.S. were among Turkey's top 10 export destinations in the automotive sector. Germany led the way with the largest number of exports, reaching $2.22 billion in the January-July period, an increase of 15.91 percent in comparison to the same period last year. Italy was the second biggest export destination with $1.45 billion, increasing by 41.44 percent compared to last year, followed by Britain with $1.37 billion and France with 1.36 billion.