Automotive industry

Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida, left, Takao Kato, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, center, and Honda Chief Executive Toshihiro Mibe, right, leave after a joint news conference in Tokyo, Japan, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024.

Honda and Nissan, two of Japan’s largest car manufacturers, have announced their intention to merge, forming a giant that will claim the third spot globally in terms of sales.

The profits of automotive companies listed on Borsa Istanbul plunged in the first nine months of 2024 even though vehicle sales remain robust.

Several factors, such as rising costs, a higher share of imported cars in the market and FX rates all eat into the auto companies' bottom line.

Troubles in the European auto market are posing risks to Turkish carmakers, according to Cengiz Eroldu, the president of the Automotive Manufacturers' Association.

Eroldu noted that Europe is the largest export market for the Turkish auto industry.

The share of imported vehicles in local sales has climbed to 70 percent in the first seven months of 2024, whereas this figure was a little more than 59 percent in 2019.

Consumer demand is expected to shift toward used cars as a new safety regulation and tariffs on Chinese will push up prices of brand-new cars.

The General Safety Regulations 2 (GSR2), which will come into force in early July, will add more costs to some cars according to representatives of the auto industry.

Production in the auto industry has declined by 1.4 percent from a year ago in the first five months of 2024 to 606,905 units, data from the Automotive Manufacturers' Association (OSD) have shown.

Companies' passenger car production, however, rose 1.5 percent in January-May compared with the same period of 2023 to around 391,000 units.

Turkish carmakers' production declined by 13.2 percent in April from a year ago, owing largely to the public holidays in the month, the data from the Automotive Manufacturers Association (OSD) have shown.

Last month, companies manufactured a total of 97,877 vehicles against 112,733 in April last year.

March sales report reveals 16 cars over 3,000 cc sold, defying expectations in a shifting automotive landscape

European Commission investigators are to inspect Chinese automakers in the coming weeks as part of a probe into whether to impose punitive tariffs to protect European electric vehicle (EV) makers, three people involved in the process said.