Thanks for that photo. I hadn't realized that Turkey was that kind of market. In fairness I knew almost nothing about the current market of Turkey in general, so it isn't like I had a lot to form an opinion, but your observations along with the details really makes me happy. Since Turkey is part of Asia, does that mean that when Tesla had talked previously about Asia being 1/3 of their market share it included Turkey in that outlook? Since the environment/culture in that part of the world strikes me as more of a European type area (I really hope you don't take offense to that statement and association with Europe... just call me a crazy ill-informed American, haha!)
Why would I get offended? Haha. Borders are just there for politics and I consider myself a world citizen, always viewed die hard nationalism trivial.
Anyway back to your question, I'd assume Tesla seeing Turkey as part of their Eastern European market because of its location. It's much farther away from big Asian cities yet a drive to Sofia(capital of Bulgaria) from Turkey can take as little as 4 hours. You can drive to Igoumenitsa / Greece in less than a day and take a ferry to Italy. Also here's a link from the most popular car sales site in Turkey;
Satılık Tesla Elektrikli Otomobil İlanları ve Fiyatları sahibinden.comda
You can see some people who have the necessary capital and the importing experience have imported a few Model S', including a P85D (must be the first in Europe) and they're selling them on extreme premiums. That photo isn't the first time I've spotted a Model S in the streets of Istanbul. I have seen one other 3 months ago and I know there are more of them from various photos on instagram. There are around 10 Model S' without any Tesla engineers present, no EV infrastructure, bodyshops or anything.
I've explained the tax advantage of EVs with my previous post but when Tesla sets up shop in Turkey and starts officially, I expect a raise to EV taxes from the Turkish government side. They just wouldn't allow it to gain traction and get popular. Here's why;
Turkey has a tax problem. They just
can't collect taxes the way they should from businesses so we have this thing called indirect taxing as a "solution". They are the most for gas, cars and alcoholic drinks
(most expensive three things in Turkey). So when buying an ICE car you pay 45%, 90% or 145%
(15% with EVs) tax called the "special consumption tax"
(cars are so special right?), depending on your ICE size. (1.2-1.6L, 1.6-2.0 litres, 2.0L and above) After that taxing over the sum you pay the regular 18% VAT and you pay this "Engined Vehicle Tax"(MTV in Turkish) every six months depending on your cars engine size. Besides, gas is really expensive and the reason for it is 70% of a liter of petrol's price is tax
(converted to American it is $15 a gallon of unleaded, after the dramatic decrease in a barrel of petrol's price) . That is why a BMW M5 costs 300K USD and a maxed out P85D with all taxes paid imported from Europe costs ~170K USD. Heck a BMW 525d xDrive costs ~the same as a S85D which runs on electric and has much better performance than a 2 litre diesel. Still, despite all these lunatic taxes and prices luxury car sales in Turkey are doing pretty good. It is very common to spot BMW 5 series, Mercedes E Class, Audi A6 series etc. People ought to go crazy on Teslas when they initiate in the market on current conditions, a possible second Norway, unless the government does the usual and decides to be a dick. (which they probably will)
So if you buy a Tesla(or an EV), you pay mush less initial tax,
no periodic tax and the gvmt can't collect tax from petrol in the long term because you don't buy any. If EVs start getting really popular they "have" to increase the taxing on EV vehicles whereas the rest of the world is giving tax credits because budget will have a big problem long term and also, well because it is Turkey and that is how things are done.
There you go, that is turkey 101 for you right there, hope this helps.
