KARSAN IS MILES AHEAD IN EXPORTS!
As a leading domestic producer, Karsan achieved a significant export volume in 2018 when the company also exhibited a successful sales performance despite the shrinking home market. Giving an important insight into the brand’s activities in the domestic market, as well as its export figures and European network of distributors, Karsan CEO Okan Baş stated that the company increased its export turnover by 50% in the last three years, achieving an export revenue of 132 million euros in 2018. Okan Baş also emphasized that Jest+ boosted its market share to 48% in the same period despite the shrinking domestic market.
Karsan achieved a significant export volume in 2018 when the company also exhibited a successful sales performance despite the shrinking home market. During this course of time Karsan, a close follower of the advanced car technologies, began the mass production of Jest Electric which was made possible in collaboration with BMW and unveiled the prototype version of Atak Electric for the approval of European customers. While commenting on the year 2018, Karsan CEO Okan Baş made important statements about the brand’s domestic market and export figures, as well as its network of European distributors.
“We achieved an export revenue of 132 million euros in 2018”
“In 2018, we became the third Turkish brand to export the highest number of light commercial vehicles. We reached an export share of 61% in our total sales turnover. We have increased our export turnover by 50% since 2016, achieving an export revenue of 132 million euros - the highest level of the last three years. Especially the bus tenders that we won in Romania in 2018 for a total of 122 buses marked the largest number of tender achievements we gained in a foreign market. Through such gains in export activities and the important steps we have taken in the field of electric vehicles, we clearly demonstrated our vision in Europe,” Karsan CEO Okan Baş said.
“We will focus on export in 2019”
Explaining how they began to reap the fruits of their initiatives in the European market, Karsan CEO Okan Baş said: “We started to receive the first orders from Europe for Jest Electric.” Baş continued: “Following the achievement in the European market, this year we also aim to enter the U.S. market with Jest Electric,” hinting at their broadened targets in the field of electric vehicles.
The CEO also announced the good news that this year the company will start the mass production of Atak Electric.
“We started 2019 with an order worth 46.5 million euros”
“We have made a quick start to 2019 with an Industria Italiana Autobus S.p.A. (IIA) order worth 46.5 million euros,” said Karsan CEO Okan Baş who also stated that in 2018 they fully delivered another IIA order amounting to 51 million euros. “As one of Turkey’s long established domestic automobile producers, we feel the excitement of starting a potentially challenging economic year for our country with such an order.”
Jest gets the lion’s share in the market
Karsan CEO Okan Baş stated that they increased their share in the domestic market in 2018 with their Jest+ and Atak models although 2018 turned out to be a difficult year for the domestic automobile sector. Okan Baş: “Last year, we made huge progress particularly with our flagship Jest+. Thanks to our Karsan Jest+ model that we modernized according to customer expectations two years ago, we managed to increase our market share from 32% to 48% despite the shrinking market in 2018 and thus achieved another important success. In the same period we doubled our sales performance in our Atak model a.k.a. the creator of the 8-meter segment and achieved a sales number of 286 despite the new market competitors. And this year we also delivered 150 Atak orders to Sivas - the highest number of Atak orders placed in one go in Karsan’s history. In 2018, we continued to be the preferred brand of Turkey and act as a pioneer in the field of mass transport.”
“We will extend our distributorship network to 20 different countries”
Karsan CEO Okan Baş also added that they have been taking very important steps towards becoming a well-known and trusted brand in Europe in the field of mass transport and underlined that they have points of distributorship in 11 different countries. Okan Baş: “At Karsan, we continue to extend our network on different continents including Europe in particular. To this end, we have points of distributorship in countries including France, Italy, Romania, Poland, and Azerbaijan. Finally, I would like to say that we signed a distributorship agreement with Sileo in Germany at the end of 2018. From this point of view you can see that we began to pay attention to the German market especially following our collaboration with BMW. We want to extend our network of distributors to reach 20 different countries by the end of 2019.”