Vehicle registrations up 15.9 pct in Jan. year-on-year

ANKARA (AA) - The number of registered vehicles on Turkey’s roads was up 15.9 percent year-on-year in January 2017, reaching more than 21.2 million, the country's statistics authority revealed Friday.

A total of 128,648 first- and second-hand vehicles were registered in the first month of the year, according to Turkstat.

Compared to the previous month, motor vehicle registration in the country soared by 26.9 percent in January.

Out of the total vehicles in Turkey, automobiles enjoyed the lion's share with 53.8 percent of new registrations, and small trucks accounted for 16.4 percent. Motorcycles came in third at 14.2 percent and tractors followed at 8.3 percent. Trucks represented 3.9 percent of new vehicles, minibuses 2.2 percent, buses 1 percent and special purpose vehicles 0.2 percent.

In terms of the distribution of model brands for new registered cars in the month, Renault recorded 18.5 percent, Volkswagen 12.2 percent, Fiat 8.6 percent, Opel 7.9 percent, Hyundai 6.9 percent, Dacia and Toyota both 6.1 percent, Ford 5.6 percent, Nissan 4.8 percent, Honda 3.9 and other trademarks combined were 19.2 percent.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s automotive production surged 31 percent year-on-year in January, according to a monthly Automotive Manufacturers’ Association (OSD) report released Feb. 10.

Automakers in the country manufactured 128,000 vehicles, including automobiles, light commercial vehicles and tractors, in January, while automobile production advanced 61 percent to stand at 94,000 in the same period, the OSD said.