 market in February 2025 with the sale of more than 3,000 units, according to the Automotive Distributors Association (ODMD), while simultaneously experiencing sharp sales declines across Europe, data from various European regulatory bodies show.){kind=link}
Tesla topped Turkey’s electric vehicle (EV) market in February with the sale of more than 3,000 units, according to the Automotive Distributors Association (ODMD), while simultaneously experiencing sharp sales declines across Europe, data from various European regulatory bodies show.
Sales in Turkey’s auto market fell 14.4 percent from February 2024, with total sales of 90,730 units, yet EV sales surged to 10,473 units — 13.8 percent of car sales — up 80.6 percent from last year.
The share of EVs in total vehicle sales rose from 7 percent a year ago to 13.8 percent in February with the sale of 3,310 units.
The EV market in Turkey has experienced rapid expansion, driven by government incentives and increasing consumer interest in sustainable transportation.
As of the end of 2024, there were 183,776 EVs registered in Turkey, representing 1.1 percent of the total 16,232,458 cars on the road. This marks a substantial increase from just 1,176 EVs in 2019.
Tesla maintained its market leadership with 3,310 units sold, followed by Turkey’s domestic manufacturer TOGG, which sold 2,038 units. Together, these two brands captured 50 percent of Turkey’s EV market in February.
Some automotive industry experts suggest the relationship between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Tesla owner Elon Musk may have contributed to Tesla’s growing presence in Turkey.
Erdoğan and Musk have met multiple times in recent years, including at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and at the Turkish House (Türkevi) in New York in September 2023.
During these meetings, the two discussed potential collaboration in space technology, the possibility of establishing Tesla manufacturing facilities in Turkey and implementing Starlink satellite services.
While Tesla dominates Turkey’s EV market, the company’s sales have declined sharply across Europe, despite overall growth in EV adoption throughout the continent.
Germany saw the steepest drop, with sales down 70.6 percent to about 2,706 units in January-February 2025 from a year earlier, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority.
Musk’s support for Germany’s far-right AfD party and criticism of Chancellor Olaf Scholz have been linked to the decline.
The Tesla CEO’s behavior is “extremely damaging,” Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center Automotive Research Institute in Germany, told the AFP news agency.
In Norway, where EVs represented 94.7 percent of February new car sales, figures from Norway’s Road Traffic Information Council (OFV) showed Tesla registrations halved compared to February 2024 and are down 44.4 percent across the first two months of the year.
In Sweden, where battery-electric vehicles captured 31.9 percent of the new car market in February with 6,872 units sold, Tesla’s performance sharply declined despite the broader EV momentum.
Tesla sales fell by 42 percent compared to February 2024, totaling only 613 vehicles. The previously popular Model Y suffered an even steeper decline, with sales dropping 52.1 percent, according to industry data.
In Denmark, electric vehicle sales reached 7,734 units in February, capturing 65 percent of the total car market, according to Mobility Denmark data. This represents a 72 percent increase compared to the same month last year.
Despite the strong overall EV performance in the Danish market, Tesla experienced a significant decline, with new registrations falling 48 percent to 509 vehicles, according to Reuters.