New car sales still lagging behind in 2023
The car market grew last year, passing the quarter of a million mark in new registrations. However, this figure is still well below the pre-pandemic level, which has been weighed down by the economic situation.
A total of 252,214 new passenger cars were registered in Switzerland and Liechtenstein in 2023, up 11.6% year-on-year. December was a particularly successful month, with a total of 26,948 new registrations (up 8.9%). The delivery difficulties encountered in 2022 have largely been overcome, Auto-Suisse reported on Wednesday.
However, these figures are still well below the 300,000 registrations recorded before the health crisis, and Auto-Suisse predicts that it is unlikely that this level will be reached this year. The reason for this is weak demand, affected by the overall rise in the cost of living and a gloomy economic outlook.
Among the brands most popular with Swiss motorists are those of German manufacturers Volkswagen, with a market share of 11.2%, and BMW (8.4%), the latter tied with Czech manufacturer Skoda (8.4%).
In detail, petrol engines account for 33.3% of registrations and diesel 9.3%, down by 1.1% and 10.6% respectively. Conversely, the number of new electric cars jumped by 31.3% year-on-year to 52,728, so that more than one in five cars put on the road ran entirely on electricity. Added to this were 23,220 new rechargeable hybrids (26.5%), taking the market share of alternative propulsion to a record 30.1%, compared with 25.9% a year earlier.
+ Share of electric cars drives forward in Switzerland
However, the federation expects this momentum to be dampened by the 18% average rise in electricity prices forecast for this year, and by the abolition on January 1 of the tax exemption for electric vehicles.
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