New Swiss electric cars regain traction but miss targets

New cars: electric cars on the rise again Keystone-SDA

Sales of electric cars continued to rise in Switzerland last year, although not enough to meet the targets set by the federal government.

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The overall car market remains sluggish, reports the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

A total of 232,602 passenger cars were put on Swiss roads in 2025, said the FSO. For the sixth time in succession, Switzerland registered significantly fewer new car registrations than it did before the coronavirus pandemic.

Compared with the previous year, the decline was 2.1%.

However, the number of new electric car registrations was 15.6% up on the previous year. As a result, their share of all new cars rose by 3.5 percentage points to 22.7%.

There was also a marked increase in sales of plug-in hybrids, which rose by 26.1% compared with 2024. These vehicles accounted for around 11.2% of all new registrations in 2025, compared with 8.7% in 2024.

The cumulative share of vehicles that can be recharged on the grid therefore reached 33.9% in 2025. This is well below the target set in the Swiss Roadmap for Electric Mobility, which last year targeted a 50% share of rechargeable vehicles.

Above European average

In a European comparison, Switzerland was in the middle of the league table for electric cars in 2025, with a share of around 23% (excluding plug-in hybrids), the FSO said.

The European average was 19%. Several countries recorded significantly higher figures than Switzerland, including undisputed leader Norway (96%), Denmark (69%), the Netherlands (40%) and Belgium (35%).

Electric cars are particularly popular among the 45 to 64 age group, who account for 5% of passenger cars registered in the name of private individuals in this age group in 2025, according to the FSO.

The corresponding share was lower among 25- to 44-year-olds (4.3%) and those aged 65 or over (3.2%), and even significantly lower among people aged 24 or under (1.2%).

In 2025, there will be almost 6.6 million motor vehicles on Swiss roads. Last year, the number of vehicles on the road fell by 2% year-on-year to 329,310.

The decline was relatively marked (-5.7%) in the case of goods vehicles, which are considered to be sensitive to the economic climate.

Adapted from French by AI/mga

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