These are the most popular e-cars in Switzerland – two manufacturers lead them all

Tesla’s Model Y was not only by far the best-selling electric car in Switzerland in 2022, it was also more popular than all petrol and diesel cars. A total of 4,928 units of the electric SUV, which costs between 55,000 and 71,000 francs, were newly registered last year. Elon Musk’s Model Y has almost overtaken the long-running VW Tiguan and the station wagon of the Skoda Octavia family from a standstill.

Tesla already achieved this feat in 2021, when the Model 3 became the best-selling car in Switzerland as the first ever electric car. In 2022, Tesla's Model 3 midsize sedan still ranked 5th in all-car sales charts and 2nd among electric cars. Just behind them, Volkswagen Group's Skoda Enyaq electric SUV sold like clockwork.

Although Tesla is at first glance the most popular e-car brand in Switzerland, Volkswagen continues to sell the most e-cars in Switzerland. Five models from the Germans can be found in places three to seven in the top 10 best-selling e-cars. Seven models from the Volkswagen brands VW, Audi, Skoda, Cupra and Porsche are represented in the top 20, as the following slideshow in the overview shows.

The Swiss market for e-cars thus remains firmly in the hands of Volkswagen and Tesla. In total, ten of the 20 best-selling models are from German manufacturers. Chinese brands hardly play a role in this country. Other than Volvo and Polestar, which belong to China's Geely group, China's emerging e-car manufacturers are not in the top 20.

Every fourth new car in 2022 had a charging connection

Almost 18 percent of the new cars sold last year run exclusively on electricity, another 8 percent have both a combustion engine and an electric motor and can therefore also be charged via a plug in the power grid. These so-called plug-in hybrids, which can often only cover a little more than 50 kilometers electrically, are already on their way out. They sold about 16 percent less than last year. Pure electric cars, on the other hand, increased by 26 percent. During the chip crisis, many manufacturers focused on fully electric models, according to the association Auto Schweiz, which explains the decline in part-time electric vehicles.

In total, a quarter of new cars sold in Germany by 2022 were either pure electric or plug-in hybrid. The Swiss Auto Association welcomes the fact that Switzerland's new fleet is becoming "constantly more climate-friendly". Yet there is still a lot of room for improvement, as can be seen from a look to the north: in Norway, cars with a charging connection had a market share of 88 percent last year (79 percent fully electric and 9 percent plug-in hybrids).

Switzerland is lagging behind

In terms of the share of electric cars, Switzerland lagged behind Germany in the European ranking. She is now in eighth place. The development was foreseeable, wrote the Swiss eMobility Association. He sees the high share of tenants in Switzerland as the reason. Because tenants often have worse conditions than people who own their own home when it comes to installing a charging station at home.

According to the annual report of the Swiss eMobility Association, the expansion of public charging stations is gaining momentum. There are now a total of 12,560 charging points across the country. That is 556 or 35 percent more than last year.

According to Swiss eMobility, "delivery problems and the resulting daunting waiting times" are also responsible for the rather subdued growth in sales of new electric cars. Several popular e-car models even had record-breaking delivery times of more than a year, depending on the desired equipment. The high demand and the scarce supply also meant that even e-cars in the cheaper vehicle classes suddenly became several thousand francs more expensive.

Hybrid cars are booming, combustion engines are losing

A quarter of the registrations concerned hybrid vehicles without a charging connection. This corresponds to an increase of 7.5 percent compared to 2021.

About half of the new vehicles put on the road only had an internal combustion engine. The share of petrol engines was 38 percent, diesel vehicles 12 percent.

For comparison:

In Norway in 2022, only 3.6 percent opted for a petrol engine and 3.1 percent for a diesel. VW therefore no longer wants to offer combustion cars in Norway from 2024.

A look at Norway shows where the journey is headed: hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars are intermediate solutions at best. With the EU ending sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035 last year, the transition to electromobility is inevitable. Many car manufacturers in Western Europe will phase out the combustion engine in the coming years.

With material from the SDA news agency.