Five out of the 10 bestselling automobiles in 2018 were manufactured in Turkey, while the market share of domestically produced cars rose to 33.6 percent according to the latest data provided by the Automotive Distributors Association (ODD).

Despite experiencing some recovery with the excise duty and value-added tax (VAT) cuts applied in the last two months, the automobile market closed 2018 with a shrinkage of 35 percent.In 2018, 620,937 vehicles were sold, including 486,321 passenger cars and 134,616 commercial vehicles. The automotive market totaled 640,000 units in sales with the addition of some 20,000 units of heavy commercial vehicles sold last year.

The passenger car investments of the brands manufacturing in Turkey panned out in 2018, resulting in an increase in sales as new models were introduced in assembly lines in the country.

The Fiat Egea took the lead with 34,060 units, followed by the Renault Megane with 29,381 units, the Renault Clio with 26,460 units, the Honda Civic with 23,799 units and the Toyota Corolla with 23,576 units. Furthermore, the domestically produced Hyundai i20 ranked 12th with 11,426 units.

The share of domestically produced models in total automobile sales of the companies with manufacturing plants in Turkey approached 100 percent in 2018. Accordingly, the share of domestically produced models sold under the Renault brand stood at 72.5 percent, followed by Honda with 83 percent, Toyota with 88.4 percent and Tofaş with 96.6 percent.

The share of imported cars, which was 77.9 percent in 2013 and as much as 70 percent in 2017, dropped to 66.4 percent in 2018. According to ODD data, the share of domestically produced automobiles surged to 33.6 percent as of the end of the year, reaching 163,405 units in sales.