One thing is clear for the car lobby: Despite the impending power supply crisis, we must continue to buy electric cars. Because electric vehicles make a significant contribution to reducing CO₂ emissions due to the low proportion of Swiss electricity mixed with fossil fuels. Additionally, a study by the Federal Energy Office shows that by the end of September 2021, 70,000 electric cars on Swiss roads accounted for less than 0.4 percent of nationwide electricity consumption.
If you analyze the latest new car registration numbers, the impending energy supply crisis doesn’t seem to slow the boom in electric cars in Switzerland. 21.6 percent of newly-used rechargeable vehicles (all-electric cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles) that can be charged via the electric grid in August represents a similarly large market share (24.2 on average) as in the first seven months of this year. percentage). However, it should be noted that many of these newly registered electric vehicles last month are new vehicles that were ordered much earlier in the year and even at the end of 2021 – at a time when no one is talking about an impending electricity crisis.
Therefore, information directly from the sales front makes more sense than these registration statistics from Auto Schweiz. Blick asked around and wanted to know if the impending electricity crisis is causing uncertainty among consumers: How do customers behave when buying cars? And what do the sellers recommend?
Electricity crisis not yet a problem
A new car marketer at Ernst Ruckstuhl Mobility AG in Kloten ZH says: “Unbelievably, the impending electricity crisis has not yet been a problem for our customers.” So far, neither he nor his colleagues have been asked about this during a sales pitch. “Maybe it’s still a little early,” he suspects, “ask me again in two or three weeks.” But what advice would you give to customers who are unsure? “Good question. I don’t know right now,” he honestly admits. “At the moment we are still selling well. Electric, hybrid, petrol and diesel.»
He looks like Christian Fischer (56), co-owner of the Volvo agency of the same name in Beinwil am See AG. “No customer who has ever bought an e-car from me has asked me if I have spare fuel for them,” Fischer laughs. Then he gets serious: “But certainly more than half of our electric car buyers generate their own electricity via solar cells on the roof of their homes. They got everything right.” Fischer also suspects that the impending power crisis is still far away. “There’s still enough for everyone. But the topic can catch up with us,” he admits. And then he doesn’t know what he advises his customers. “At least we’re in a comfortable position right now that Volvo continues to offer the full range of drives, from combustion engines to electric motors. “
Amag, the largest automobile importer in our country, advises its customers to continue to include e-cars in their evaluation when choosing a new car. “Especially in terms of bidirectional charging,” says Amag spokesperson Dino Graf. In other words, the possibility of e-cars not only to charge but also to distribute electricity. Of course, Auto Switzerland President and Senior Vice President National Council Member Albert Rösti (55) also advocates for electromobility: “Traffic is systemically important to our society. This was confirmed to me in the Federal Council’s response to my question: The Federal Council wishes to take into account the importance of mobility in case of possible measures to interfere with the power supply.»
Reconsider the ban on incinerators
But can this response from the Federal Council reassure current and future e-car owners? Rösti admits that the impending electricity crisis is poison for the further development of the e-mobility market. And so it demands that “the EU’s targeted ban on combustion engines from 2035 should be questioned as it greatly restricts flexibility in the use of available energy sources”. However, it remains highly doubtful whether Rösti’s political colleagues in the EU can still be deterred from the path they took to ban combustion engines.