Car sales in Türkiye maintained their record trend in October despite tightening financing conditions, industry data showed on Thursday, adding to the peaks since the beginning of the year.
Backed by the increase in the supply of available cars, a record 101,367 passenger cars and light commercial vehicles were sold last month, the Automotive Distributors and Mobility Association (ODMD) said in a statement, marking a 55.4% year-over-year increase.
Car sales surged by 74.1%, totaling 82,611 units, the data showed, while the market for light commercial vehicles saw a more modest increase of 5.5%, with sales reaching 18,756 units.
Demand soared as depreciation in the Turkish lira, and soaring prices prompted consumers to continue to opt for cars they see as a tool to safeguard themselves from high inflation, which rose to 61.5% in the 12 months to September.
The increase in October lifted the combined sales from January through October to a fresh record of 958,942 units, marking a year-over-year growth of 63.7%.
The figure surpasses the whole of 2022 when some 783,283 cars and light commercial vehicles exchanged hands.
The increase in car sales comes despite higher borrowing costs after the central bank aggressively tightened its monetary policy after the May elections to counter price rises.
Higher interest rates, which cool the economy by making it more expensive to borrow and bearing down on spending, have contributed to bringing down inflation worldwide.
Türkiye’s central bank has raised its benchmark one-week repo rate by 2,650 basis points since June as part of a wider policy shift toward more conventional policymaking.
Meanwhile, electric cars have also been booming this year, capturing a market share unseen to date, backed by the first homegrown battery-powered vehicle brand that has been adding momentum to its deliveries.
Some 48,883 EVs have been sold from January through October of this year, the ODMD data showed, marking a ninefold increase from a year ago.
Sales in October alone jumped tenfold to 9,832, lifting the EV share in the overall market to 11.9%.
Togg, the manufacturer of Türkiye’s first electric car, outpaced Tesla as it delivered some 3,567 units of its C-segment SUV T10X in October. This figure brings its deliveries since late April to 9,171 units.
Tesla sold 500 units of its Model Y last month. The carmaker has delivered some 10,700 units so far this year.
