Market: Alternatives score strongly
CONTINUING STABLE INTEREST Surprising half-year results in the market for new passenger cars in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein. Electrified passenger cars and natural gas models were often in demand. With 157,136 new registrations, only 774 vehicles are short of the comparable figure for the same period last year. This means that demand for new vehicles is stable. It was not enough to achieve a plus, also because of June, [...].
With 157,136 new registrations, only 774 vehicles are short of the comparable prior-year figure. This means that demand for new vehicles is stable. There was also no increase due to June, which had two fewer working days this year than in 2018.
On an average working day, around 1200 new passenger cars are redeemed in Switzerland. This already explains a large part of the market decline in June, which is behind 2018 due to the calendar shift as well as the late Whitsun weekend.
Positive outlook for the second half of the year
Media spokesman Christoph Wolnik: "The first half of the year is fine, even if we would have liked to see a different result in June. However, the outlook for the second half of the year is positive, as last year's problems with the switch to the WLTP test cycle have largely been overcome. We are already more than halfway towards our annual forecast of 308,000 new passenger car sales."
Electric drives and natural gas on trend
There is good news across the board about the development of alternative drive systems. Compared with 2018, the number of alternative drive systems grew by 68.2 percent in the first half of the year to exactly 16,700, and their market share rose from 6.3 to 10.6 percent. Electric cars (+147.2 percent) and hybrid drives consisting of an internal combustion engine and an electric motor (+48.4%) were the main growth drivers. Of the latter, more than 10,000 were registered for the first time in a half-year period (10,237, of which 9,177 with gasoline engines and 10,60 with diesel engines).
But CNG models, which can run on natural gas and biogas, also showed a positive trend, with an increase of 50.5 percent in June.
