Volkswagen Group is weighing assembly of China-developed models in Turkey as a way to expand exports and offset a shrinking home market in China, according to people familiar with the plan reported by Chinese automotive press.
The group has signed an agreement with Turkish distributor Dogus Otomotiv covering the production plan. The two sides intend to use complete knock-down kits, shipping vehicles to Turkey as disassembled component sets and assembling them locally.
Dogus Otomotiv confirmed on 30 October that it had signed a letter of intent with Volkswagen Group to examine the feasibility of producing Volkswagen-brand passenger cars in Turkey. Dogus said the cooperation is intended to bring higher-value products to the Turkish market and to support the growth of the local automotive industry.
Dogus did not disclose which models would be built. The project concerns models produced by Volkswagen Group’s joint venture with China FAW Group. Volkswagen declined to comment.
What the Chinese joint venture already exports
FAW-Volkswagen builds a wide range of models for the Chinese market, including the Magotan mid-size sedan, the Jetta brand range and Audi models. The joint venture has already exported Volkswagen and Jetta combustion vehicles to the Middle East and Central Asia, and announced the start of exports to Madagascar on 11 September.
The Turkey plan is another step in Volkswagen’s effort to convert Chinese plants into export bases. As demand weakens and competition intensifies at home, the group is looking for overseas business for factories that were sized for a larger Chinese market.
Volkswagen said on 29 October that its China deliveries fell 30 per cent year on year in the first nine months of 2026, to 1.38 million vehicles. The company said the internal combustion segment was hit particularly hard.
A slogan rewritten
Volkswagen is gradually adjusting its long-standing “in China, for China” strategy towards what it calls “in China, beyond China”.
The group does not currently produce vehicles in Turkey. In 2020 it abandoned a plan to build a plant there, citing the pandemic and global economic uncertainty.
Turkey registered about 630,000 new vehicles in the first nine months of the year. Internal combustion cars still dominate with roughly 80 per cent of registrations, while electric vehicles account for slightly under 20 per cent.
For Volkswagen the appeal is arithmetic. Chinese-developed models carry engineering costs already written off in a market of 1.38 million deliveries a year, and Turkish assembly avoids the tariff that would apply to a finished car shipped from China.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original Gasgoo report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience. The full original (in Chinese) is at https://auto.gasgoo.com/news/202611/3I70476777C101.shtml.