Chinese carmakers eye Türkiye’s pickup market

Taylan Özgür Dil-ISTANBUL

Chinese automakers, unable to import electric and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) passenger cars due to Turkish regulations and facing high customs duties on internal combustion engine models, have found a new area for growth in Türkiye: The pickup truck market.

The trend, which began two years ago with Foton, has gained momentum this year with the arrival of Dongfeng and Ultrand. Maxus, a brand under China’s SAIC Group, is also preparing to launch its pickup model in Türkiye by the end of the year.

As a result, the number of Chinese brands that have entered or are preparing to enter Türkiye’s pickup market over the past year will reach four.

Chinese manufacturers’ shift toward the pickup segment is driven by the high customs duties they face in passenger car imports and by regulatory requirements imposed on electric and PHEV vehicles.

While these measures have limited Chinese brands’ competitiveness in the passenger car market, they enable them to offer more competitive pricing in the pickup segment. That is because the special consumption tax (ÖTV) applied to pickup trucks is lower than that imposed on passenger cars.

Chinese brands’ combined passenger car and light commercial vehicle sales in Türkiye fell 41.1 percent year-on-year to 32,249 units in January-July. Their share of the overall market also declined to 5 percent from 7.6 percent.

Chinese manufacturers are expected to rely on competitive pricing as their main advantage. In particular, 4x2 pickup versions, which benefit from a more favorable tax structure, are expected to allow highly equipped models to be offered at more accessible prices.

As high customs duties and import regulations narrow opportunities in the passenger car market, Chinese brands are seeking to establish a new growth avenue in Türkiye’s pickup segment, where Japanese, American and European manufacturers have traditionally held strong positions.