Title: OYDER/Erciş: Turkey's Automotive Industry Drives a 13% Growth in 2023 with $35 Billion in Exports
The Automotive Dealers Association (OYDER) held its highly anticipated Automotive Congress after a five-year hiatus with the theme "Sustainable Authorized Dealership". The congress attracted key industry figures, including Deputy Minister of Trade Mahmut Gürcan, focusing on changing business models and emerging new technologies for the automotive world's future. Industry professionals evaluated all projections on the present and future of the authorized dealership profession.
Following the opening address by OYDER President Dr. K. Altuğ Erciş, Deputy Minister Mahmut Gürcan discussed new regulations applied to distributors in motor vehicle trade and highlighted rules such as preventing dealers from forcing dealers to buy more vehicles than their three-year monthly sales average within a month, not increasing vehicle prices post-invoicing, delivering vehicles within 15 days, and not tying vehicle sales to arbitrary conditions.
Gürcan announced a historic record in automotive sector exports, reaching $26.9 billion in the first nine months of 2024, noting that Turkey rose from 15th to 13th in global automotive production over the past five years despite worldwide crises. New regulations for automotive ads on social media were also noted, with non-compliance fines ranging between 10,000 to 100,000 TL per ad.
Dr. K. Altuğ Erciş, addressing the Automotive Congress, acknowledged the severe impact of the pandemic on the sector, noting a significant demand-supply imbalance that led to cars becoming more valuable and fewer discounts being offered by dealers. He explained that lower profit margins before the pandemic made necessary margin increases seem opportunistic, emphasizing that authorized dealers operated transparently, despite a few negative practices by other businesses.
OYDER's statistics revealed a 211% increase in sales value to 2 trillion TL in 2023, indicating a large sector with low profitability and high debt levels. Erciş stressed the importance of balancing relations between distributors and dealers to ensure mutual benefit in the sector. A panel, moderated by Sinan Özkök, discussed the future of authorized dealerships in Turkey, featuring industry leaders like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Stellantis, and Fiat representatives. Bill Russo also provided insights into China's automotive economy.