Türkiye's car and light commercial vehicle market reached an all-time high in 2025, with nearly one out of every six automobiles sold being fully electric, sector data showed late on Tuesday.
The industry had broken records in almost every month of the year as demand remained resilient despite high taxes and tight financing conditions.
Total sales rose 10.5% to nearly 1.37 million units last year, up from 1.24 million units in 2024, according to the Automotive Distributors and Mobility Association (ODMD).
Sales in December alone climbed 12.6% to 191,620 units, the data showed.
ODMD Chair Haydar Bozkurt said demographic trends and fleet renewal were key drivers behind the surge.
"At the start of the year, we expected a market in line with the previous year, but Türkiye's large population, rising mobility needs and the ageing vehicle fleet reaching renewal age became the main factors supporting new record sales," Bozkurt noted.
He said the industry expects the market to remain at similar levels in 2026, adding that they see potential for volumes to reach 1.5 million units or more in the coming years.
Fully electric car sales jumped around 90% last year to nearly 190,000 units, lifting their share of the passenger car market to 17%, up seven percentage points from a year earlier.
Hybrid vehicle sales also rose strongly, increasing 63% to about 295,000 units, accounting for 27% of the market, although growth lagged behind the pace seen in pure EVs.
Overall passenger car sales climbed 10.6% to a record 1.1 million units, while light commercial vehicle sales rose 10% to 283,904 units, also an all-time high.
In December alone, passenger car sales increased 8.5% year-over-year to 146,319 units, the highest monthly figure on record, while light commercial vehicle sales surged 27.8% to 45,301 units, their strongest December performance since 2010, ODMD data showed.
The momentum persisted throughout 2025 despite high borrowing costs, as authorities maintained a tight policy to cool demand, the main driver of inflation, and a special consumption tax (ÖTV) adjustment at the end of July.
Türkiye's complex vehicle tax system includes a special consumption tax and value-added tax. The combined rate ranges from 50% to 284%.
Annual inflation ended 2025 at 30.89%, the lowest rate since November 2021. That compared to 44.4% posted a year earlier.
The Turkish central bank shaved 950 basis points off its benchmark policy rate last year, bringing it down from 47.5% to 38%.
While the bank has emphasized that future decisions will remain data-driven and assessed on a meeting-by-meeting basis, it's still widely expected to continue with its easing cycle.
