When September Is Left to Togg: The Secret Behind the Sales Figures

In September 2026, the Türkiye car market shrank by 27.8% year-on-year to 63,736 units ; but at the top of the ranking there was an unexpected name: Togg T10X, with 4,237 units, kept the top spot not for the first time, but for the second month in a row. In the same month, the market share of fully electric cars rose to 23.7% - meaning one in every four cars sold is now electric. While the market is shrinking and the picture is transforming, this is a familiar scene for those who have long been in the business: as the numbers fall, the identity of the market is changing.

What are the best-selling cars in September 2026?

The top five of the month tells the market's new balance at a single glance. When the identity of the two models in the first two places is compared with the lists of a decade ago, the magnitude of the transformation becomes evident.

A small note is needed on the units of the Renault Boreal in second place: in some reports this figure is given as 3,159; differences in period cutoff and counting methodology are the most natural explanation for such swings of a few hundred units. What is truly striking is the overall character of the list: two of the five models are Togg, four are electric. In the past, this entire picture would have consisted of gasoline and diesel C-segment models; now the top itself tells a different story.

How did Togg become the leader while the market shrank?

It is a well-earned question: how does a brand break record after record while the total market contracts by more than twenty percent? The answer has two parts. The first is on the market side: September's total volume of 83,469 units (cars and light commercial vehicles together, a year-on-year decline of 24.33%) may look like a hard brake, yet it is still 17.8% above the September average of the last decade. So it is not a bad month in absolute terms; it is a normalization compared with the inflated post-pandemic years. The second is on the Togg side: with the switch to an LFP battery, production speed increased and the brand converted this increase directly into sales.

The September total of Togg's two models is 6,692 units - the brand's second-highest monthly sales to date. The year-to-date total is 37,426, and the cumulative total to date has reached 126,122 units . In addition, in September the brand accounted for no less than 44.4% of took; meaning 44 out of every 100 EVs sold was a Togg. The monthly record of 7,305 units registered in December 2025 is expected to be surpassed by the end of this year - significant not just for the figure itself, but because this expectation is no longer considered extraordinary.

The internal ranking of the EV segment

September's fully electric ranking shows how broad-based Togg's leadership is: T10X 4,237, T10F 2,455, Tesla Model Y 1,725, Kia EV2 809, Volvo EX30 532. That the top spots Tesla has long been accustomed to are being shared in Türkiye by two domestic models would have been considered a fantasy if written five years ago. Moreover, this picture is not a one-month spike; on the nine-month list too, the T10X sits at the top of the overall ranking with 17,783 units.

EV share at 23.7%: where is the structural transformation heading?

In September, fully electric car sales reached 15,074 units, up 18.6%; the share rose from 14.6% a year earlier to 23.7%. That alone is a strong figure, but the real picture emerges across the whole year. In the engine-type distribution of the first eight months, gasoline stood at 40.8% (230,341 units), hybrid 33.1% (187,045 units), fully electric 18.8% (105,951 units). Hybrid and electric combined have surpassed half of the total with 292,996 units. The share of electric plus hybrid totals is measured at 51.7% for the January-July period and 51.9% in the eight-month table - differences in period cut-offs move the figure by a few tenths of a percent, but do not change its direction.

There is a notable nuance here: in the 8-month table, hybrid sales rose 3.7% while gasoline fell 22.4% and diesel 35.6%; total electric sales also declined 12.3%. Yet the EV share still rose from 18.5% to 18.8% - because the pie is shrinking faster than everyone else. The shift in the power distribution is part of the same story: EVs under 160 kW reached a 16.8% share with a 7.3% increase, while the over-160 kW segment shrank 65.3% down to 2%. Buyers are shifting from high-performance versions to accessible power levels. This is the accelerated repeat in EVs of the maturation curve we have seen in gasoline cars for years.

Why is the nine-month leader still the Clio?

Even though the monthly peak belongs to the T10X, the year overall belongs to another name: Renault Clio, which closed the first nine months as leader with 34,151 units. In the eight-month cut-off, the Clio was clearly ahead with 31,643 units; it was followed by the Corolla with 22,009, the Megane Sedan with 19,938 and the T10X with 17,783. As a brand, Renault also completed the first nine months as leader with 102,818 sales and a 12.8% market share; the Clio had also been chosen "Car of the Year 2026 in Türkiye." That the Clio figure in Oyak Renault's own statement is 33,636 may look different from the 34,151 in Forbes; the period and scope differences between corporate counting and market research data make such discrepancies perfectly normal.

This table also summarizes how the change in the Turkish market took place: leadership does not change hands overnight. The Clio has been the reference model of this market for more than thirty years; the T10X overtaking it on a monthly basis is not yet reflected in the nine-month cumulative figure. But the direction is clear. Moreover, the story of the Boreal supports this too: the model, launched on June 15, drew attention by selling 2,160 units in just two weeks, and had settled into second place on the overall list in September.

The anatomy of the market: SUV, segment, and transmission

Digging deeper into the figures, it becomes clear that the market is not uniform. In the first eight months, the SUV share was 66.1% (372,790 units); the September bulletin gives this share as 66.2%. Sedan remains at 20% and hatchback at 13.6%. In the segment distribution, A+B+C together account for 84.3% of sales; the C segment alone accounts for 55.1%. In other words, the market is concentrating on a common point both in body type and price band. The automatic transmission share has reached 97%, while diesel has fallen to 5.9% - quite a few people predicted diesel's end in this market ten years ago; the figure now closes the debate.

There is movement on the price side as well. In the September price list, the Boreal starts at 2,269,000 TL, with top trim levels going up to 2,379,000 TL; the Megane Sedan's starting price appears as 1,841,000 TL in some lists and 2,199,000 TL on the official page - this difference is natural depending on trim level. C-segment SUV prices moving within this band are also narrowing the price gap of electric and hybrid alternatives month by month; the economic engine of the transformation is partly here.

Where is the market heading toward the end of the year?

ODMD Board Chairman Hakan Tiftik announced that the year-end total market target has been raised to 1.2 million units Given the nine-month total of 803,465 units (cars and light commercial vehicles combined, a 13.4% annual contraction), it is clear that this target places a serious burden on the final quarter. But the production momentum on the Togg side, December's traditional intensity, and the fact that the electric share still has an upward slope show that the target is not entirely wishful thinking.

The main message, I think, is this: while the Türkiye market is shrinking, it is also being rebuilt. Within the contraction, there are both those losing share and winners. The electric share moving to 23.7% and hybrid settling into the one-third band raise the question of whether the very concept of a "transition period" itself will become obsolete within a few years. For those looking at old September lists and unable to adjust to today's picture, this month's figures seem like an announcement of an adjustment period. The market has tightened; but the new order is already established.

Sources

• ODMD October 2026 Press Release (September data)
• Oyak – Renault enters the final quarter at the top
• Renault Türkiye – Boreal official page
• BloombergHT – Automotive sales hit the brakes hard in September
• GCM Investment – Special Report on September 2026 Automotive Sales
• Webtekno – How many cars were sold in Türkiye in September 2026
• Yeşilhaber – ODMD September 2026: electric sales up 18.6%
• Memurlar.net – 44 out of every 100 electric cars sold is a Togg
• Vidyoto – Best-selling cars in the first 8 months of 2026 (ODMD data)
• Forbes Türkiye – Best-selling cars of the first nine months
• Lojiyol – Renault leads the first 9 months of 2026
• Turkishtime – Automotive market exceeded 83 thousand units in September
• Araclo – September 2026 automotive market
• Milliyet Uzmanpara – Electric and hybrid share at 51.7%
• Webtekno – Renault September 2026 price list