Electric cars save the carbon footprint of car manufacturers

More and more electric cars are driving on Swiss roads. More than one in four new passenger cars registered in 2022 had an electric or plug-in hybrid engine. This has noticeable consequences: the progressive electrification of new passenger cars and vans reduces energy consumption and CO2 emissions, as electric cars are much more efficient than combustion cars.

The average energy consumption across all types of drive – expressed in petrol units – was 5.77 liter petrol equivalent (LBÄ) per 100 kilometres, compared to 6.12 LBE/100 km the year before. The consumption of the petrol vehicles was 6.80 liters of petrol equivalent per 100 kilometres, pure electric vehicles consumed an average of only 2.10 LB/100 km.

In terms of CO2 emissions, the target values ​​were still exceeded, slightly for passenger cars, but considerably for delivery vans and light trucks.

More than a quarter of new cars are electric

26.1 percent of the approximately 230,000 newly registered passenger cars in 2022 were electrically rechargeable, the Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) wrote Thursday. And another 11.4 percent had a diesel engine. In 2020, the share of electric cars was still around 14 percent and that of diesel cars was almost 24 percent.

Nevertheless, the new vehicles exceeded targets for total greenhouse gas emissions. This is 118 grams per kilometer for passenger cars and 186 grams per kilometer for delivery vans and light trucks.

Each new passenger car emits an average of 120.9 grams of CO2 per kilometre, which corresponds to a decrease of 6.9 percent. In the vans and light trucks category, this was 201.5 grams of CO2 per kilometre.

The industry has to pay fines

The SFOE therefore reported last year sanctions against the industry amounting to about 16.4 million francs for passenger cars and about 5.6 million francs for vans and light trucks. Net taxes raised about 20 million Swiss francs; the money goes to the National Road and Agglomeration Transport Fund.

Charging infrastructure remains a bottleneck

According to Auto Schweiz, the association of Swiss car importers, the range of electric vehicles is becoming increasingly popular. But many challenges remained. Progress is much too slow, especially when it comes to setting up public and private charging infrastructure. With a view to commercial vehicles, companies must be offered an economically sustainable perspective for the switch to electric propulsion, which is still expensive today.

(oli/sda)