The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Tuesday that new road motor vehicle registrations in Türkiye fell by 14.8% in October compared to the same month last year, highlighting a continued slowdown in the automotive market.

A total of 178,481 new vehicles were registered to traffic in October, also reflecting a 9.1% decrease from the previous month. Despite the overall decline, certain segments demonstrated resilience and growth on an annual basis.

Cars maintained their dominance in new registrations, accounting for 49.1% of the October total with 87,624 units. This represented a 17.4% increase compared to October of the previous year. Motorcycles were the second-largest segment at 34.5%, though their registrations plummeted by 42.3% year-on-year.

Small trucks were a notable bright spot, with registrations jumping 19.0% compared to the same month last year and making up 11.4% of the monthly registrations. Special purpose vehicles saw the most dramatic annual growth, surging by 47.1%, albeit from a very small base.

In the competitive passenger car segment, Volkswagen led the market in October with a 12.8% share of new registrations. It was followed closely by Renault at 10.7%. Fiat, Toyota, and Hyundai rounded out the top five with 6.8%, 6.7%, and 6.2% shares, respectively.

Domestic electric vehicle manufacturer TOGG captured a significant 4.1% of the new car market, outpacing established global brands like Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, and Ford.

For the January-October period, total vehicle registrations reached 1,937,161, marking a 10.8% decrease from the same period in 2023.

An analysis of the 877,251 cars registered in the first ten months of the year reveals a significant shift in fuel type preferences. Gasoline engines were the most common at 46.3%, but hybrid and electric vehicles are gaining substantial ground, capturing 26.5% and 16.9% of the market, respectively. Diesel cars accounted for only 9.1% of new registrations.

This contrasts sharply with the composition of the entire car fleet on Turkish roads, where diesel (32.9%), gasoline (30.8%), and LPG (30.5%) remain the dominant fuel types.

The data also shed light on consumer preferences for engine size and colour. In the January-October period, the most common engine size for new cars was 1300cc or less (30.0%), indicating a preference for smaller, more fuel-efficient engines.

When it comes to colour, grey was the overwhelming favourite, chosen for 40.1% of all new cars registered. White was a distant second at 24.8%, followed by black at 13.4%.

At the end of October, the total number of registered road motor vehicles in Türkiye reached 33,193,636, with cars constituting 51.6% of the entire fleet. (ILKHA)