A KPMG survey of 200 executives of automotive companies that currently manufacture or sell in Turkey found that 53% of them do not expect further foreign investment in the country’s car industry in the next four years (compared with 26% that do expect further investment).
Turkey’s government has set itself the target of producing four million cars per year by 2023, with exports amounting to three million. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has apparently chosen that year because it marks the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic. He also intends that Turkey should be one of the world’s 10 largest economies by then.
However, Ibrahim Aybar, general manager of Renault Mais in Istanbul, said: “Turkey’s automobile sector has been deprived of new additions for years. New brands have not come to Turkey since 1997, and investments have not arrived since 2002.”
KPMG Automotive representative Ergün Kıs (pictured) said: “European automotive giants like Opel and Peugeot are entering major debt crises. For this reason, rather than opting to invest in countries such as Turkey, they are attempting to fix their own problems.”