Auto industry eyes growth in 2025 despite challenges
ISTANBUL
Türkiye’s automotive sector is poised for a stronger year in both production and exports, according to Cengiz Eroldu, president of the Automotive Manufacturers Association (OSD).
Speaking on the industry's performance in the first half of 2025, Eroldu stated, “We expect our production and export figures to surpass those of 2024 by around 10 percent.”
The industry closed the first six months with 707,000 units produced, roughly in line with last year’s figures, Eroldu said. He, however, noted a slight decline in capacity utilization.
Exports rose 7.5 percent year-on-year, reaching 530,322 vehicles, he recalled.
Eroldu pointed out that while this marks a solid improvement, the sector remains far from its 2017 peak of 714,000 units.
Nevertheless, in terms of value, exports hit $20 billion, making it the highest first-half export figure in the past decade, according to Eroldu.
"Volume should be the key indicator," Eroldu emphasized. "We’re doing better than last year, but we should be doing even better given the scale of investments in the sector."
Eroldu highlighted that the automotive industry has invested over $10 billion in the past decade.
“With 629,000 units sold, the automotive market has also recorded its strongest first half in the past 10 years. From this perspective, the performance is quite solid,” he said.
Despite strong export figures, the share of locally produced vehicles in domestic sales continues to decline, he said, noting that in the first half of 2025, the share dropped to 29 percent, down from 32 percent last year.
The current downward trend is negatively impacting domestic production, according to Eroldu.
“Why aren’t we able to achieve higher export and production volumes?” Eroldu asked, adding, “Undoubtedly, the loss of competitiveness we've experienced over the past three years plays a major role in this.”
"Unfortunately, the Turkish automotive industry has become more expensive than Eastern European countries. We are all witnessing the challenges this has created,” he said.
“We need to become more competitive in order to boost exports and production. To that end, we are working to improve our efficiency and raise these figures.”
Despite this, Eroldu emphasized a positive shift in the second quarter: “Compared to the first three months, both exports and production performed better in the second quarter. This is encouraging for the remainder of the year — it signals more production and more exports.”
"The numbers clearly reflect that. We’re on the right track, that’s what this data tells us,” he said.
