Exports of passenger cars were down by 5% with 875,147 exported in 2018.
However, truck exports almost doubled from 7,800 in 2017 to 14,478 last year, bringing overall exports of all vehicle types to 1.3m, a drop of 0.9% on 2017. The Uludağ Automotive Industry Exporters’ Association (OİB) recorded $28.5 billion worth of exports, which is an increase of 11.3% compared to the previous year.
The top three vehicle exporters in 2018 were Ford Otosan (328,502), Oyak Renault (280,411) and Tofas (243,796).
Export performance was depends on the market outlook as a whole, especially in the EU, to where 85% of exports are shipped. Existing production capacity and the share of total production taken by the domestic market would be the main constraints to increasing future export levels.