Dear friends,

Automotive sector performance results for 2019 have just been announced.
Let’s look briefly at the statistics served by the Automotive Industry Association (OSD) this weekend:
Motor vehicle production in 2019 was down 6% from the previous year with 1,461,244 units.
In 2019, our motor vehicle exports decreased by 5% compared to the previous year with 1,252,586 units.
Our automotive exports for 2019 were $ 31.2 billion. There is a 3% decrease in export revenue compared to the previous year.
On the other hand, domestic market sales also declined in 2019. Total sales were 491,909 units with a 23% contraction from the previous year.
As a result, automotive sector performance in 2019 is worse than 2018. Financial incentives effective in the last quarter of the year prevented further decline in domestic sales.
Although we have the prospect of a rising performance for 2020, I would like to draw your attention to the following point as far as exports are concerned.
In the European Union, our largest export market, we see a significant shift in consumer preferences over automotive products.
The European Automobile Manufacturers Association ( ACEA) says the sales of diesel-powered cars in the first three quarters of 2019 are down 14.1% from a year earlier,  On contrary, 6.1% increase in sales of petrol-powered cars and a 46.2% increase in sales of cars using alternative energy. Especially BEV battery and electric motor car sales increased by 126%. So much so that the combined share of electric and hybrid cars in total sales has reached 11.4% and is steadily increasing.
Here is the message : Consumer choice in the EU market is shifting towards alternative energy-driven cars. Our automotive industry should take a position accordingly. We should increase the production of hybrid models by diversifying and not be late in making the transition to the production of electric models. Because we export almost 80% of what we produce. This is crucial to keep up with export markets..
Now let’s come to TOGG car, our new domestic and national car at this point. As I’ve always said, the production is not sustainable if sales are not economically enough.. You may remember that the Fluence ZE, the first domestic electric car we started producing in 2011, lost its production to the Far East as it could not have sold enough. It should not be the case for TOGG car.
I have a reminder to Mr. Gürcan KARAKAŞ and his valuable colleagues at this stage.
The Tesla brand, which produces only battery-powered electric cars, received a pre-order from each  consumer for the sale of its Model 3 car, launched in 2016, with a deposit of $ 1000. www.theverge.com, says that  325 thousand pre-orders were received by  April 7, 2016. The preliminary financing provided in this way reached $ 325 million, That is approximately TL 2 billion at today’s exchange rate.
I think it is useful to evaluate this method that will contribute to the sale of the TOGG  electric car which is our pride..

See you in my next article,

PS : You may also follow my articles on motor1.com and otomobilhaber.com.tr