Sales of fully electric vehicles have nearly doubled last year in Turkey, despite the imposed automotive tariffs by the country’s Government.
A total of 191,960 units were sold throughout 2025, marking a 90% year-on year increase — data released by the Automotive Distributors and Mobility Association (ODMD) showed.
Fully electric models accounted for 17.7% of the passenger car market in the country. Nearly one out of five vehicles sold in Turkey last year were pure electric.
Sales of hybrid vehicles rose by 62.7% year-on-year to 295,378 units, achieving a market share of 27.2%.
Specifically, 47.969 of these were plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), representing a 383,5% increase compared to 2024.
Across all powertrains of passenger cars, new-energy vehicles (NEV) represented nearly half (44.9%) of registered passenger cars last year.
In December alone, 25,203 of the total vehicles sold were fully electric, marking a 17.3% EV market share, whereas hybrids accounted for 43,386 units.
Of those, 9,320 units were PHEVs.
Automotive Import Duties
Last September, Turkey implemented several tariffs on non-European Union (EU) passenger vehicles, due to the “rapidly increasing protectionist measures globally,” according to the Turkish Trade Ministry.
Internal combustion engine (ICE) and hybrid vehicles – excluding PHEVs – are subject to an additional duty of 25% or a minimum of $6,000 per unit.
Meanwhile, both PHEVs and BEVs are taxed 30%, but with separate minimums – $7,000 and $8,500 per unit, respectively.
However, the import duties on Chinese automakers were cut down from 60% to between 35% and 40%, which led to a growth of brands from the world’s largest EV market.
On the other hand, Japanese, Mexican, and South African imports are subject to higher tariffs – from 10% to between 35% and 40%.
Best Selling Brands
Based on the data from ODMD, Renault led across all powertrains in 2025, with a total of 131,764 units, and it was followed by the German giant Volkswagen, which sold 88,682 vehicles.
The best-selling model of last year was the Renault Clio, achieving 51,717 sales.
Looking at fully electric vehicles, Tesla ranked first with over 31,509 units sold.
The US giant’s Model Y – its only model available in Turkey – led the EV sales chart.
In the second half of the year, Tesla launched the Model Y Standard version of the SUV in the market, allowing it to enter a lower segment.
Tesla Sales
Tesla’s sales surged in the Turkish market in 2025 despite the year over year decline posted in December.
The Texas-headquartered company sold a total of 31,509 EVs last year, representing a 273% growth compared to 2024.
However, in the last month of 2025, Tesla registered 1,554 units — a 33% year-on year fall.
While BEVs represented 17.3% of total sales in December, the Elon Musk–led company accounted for 6.1% of that market.
Turkish Factories
As fully electric vehicle sales accelerate in Turkey, major EV automakers are turning to local production to avoid import tariffs.
The Chinese giant BYD is preparing to start production in a new $1 billion EV factory in Turkey to avoid EU tariffs.
The plant is expected to generate up to 5,000 jobs and have an annual production capacity of 150,000 units.
Dongfeng, another Chinese automaker, is in talks to produce passenger cars in Turkey, the brand’s local distributor revealed in early January.
Hyundai is expected to begin production of the first fully electric vehicles in Turkey in the second half of the year.
