It is important for being a major player in the global market to be able to develop technology. The innovative products cannot be easily copied by competitors and therefore these type of products must not enter the market with low prices.
We are observing that the production of various automotive parts with a wide variety of technological infrastructure in Turkey are sold both in domestic market and abroad. Due to evaluating the technological developments in the automotive industry, we can easily foresee that the electric and autonomous vehicles will be increasingly seen in the developed countries. Technologic development on batteries and charging systems are very fast. The prices are getting lower. It looks like that it does not take too much, the prices and performance of electric vehicles catch internal combustion engine (ICE) technologies. Using electric vehicles are promoted in many countries, especially in the North of Europe. In the many regions all over the world, using ICE vehicles is becoming impossible. Therefore the technology developing in Turkey should be aligned with this flow is not so hard to say. In the renovation market battery technologies, the electronic products and sensors would be more in the foreground in the near future. With the availability of the affordable technological infrastructure, we can predict an increase of conversions to EV from current ICE vehicles. “Industry 4.0” defines communication among machines and systems at the industry side, while human mobility on the earth is getting smarter and smarter in time. It looks like all objects around human will be communicating. Therefore developing software for smart cars, smart homes or smart cities will be one of the most important competition area. It can be surely stated that automotive part industry will be naturally affected from all these developments. In Turkey, independent aftermarket (IAM) is mostly shaped by competition of low price products. The policies supporting exporting higher quality products and sustainable production mostly relying on export sales can have significant change in the process. It is very crucial stage for developing domestic production competitiveness. Nationalization policies have also very important role in terms of increasing and developing domestic production. For example, the taxes for import products compel the well-known brands to invest in Turkey to produce some models in Turkey in tractor sector. Similarly in the railway sector, the national tenders requiring the products consisting of 80% domestic components and systems is contributing domestic production and technology transfer to Turkey. The biggest challenge in the market is the rapid increase on raw material prices. Fluctuations in exchange rates cause inconsistency in product costs. The collective labor agreement in 2018 has resulted in a higher increase in labor costs than expected. All these reasons have influenced competitiveness of manufacturers in Turkey. It is important to follow up the long term strategies and providing more consistent macroeconomic circumstances in domestic market for being much more competitive in the global market. Today, producing equivalent parts and entering the market with low price competition provide an accessibility to many domestic manufacturers in the global market. On the other hand, developing technology and innovative solutions as well as producing not only part but also components and sub-systems are the key success points to become major player and to create global brands. The innovative products cannot be easily copied by competitors and therefore these type of products are not entering the market with low prices. Successful development of domestic automotive production clearly depends on the technological base of their suppliers. The OEMs cannot define and produce all technological developments. Actually, global suppliers are developing the most of new technologies. It can be observed that the major suppliers understanding the needs of OEMs are also the pioneers of the technological developments.