First figures on road traffic 2016

strasseschweiz provides the latest statistical figures on the road sector shortly after the turn of the year. The most important key figures:

• The number of motor vehicles increased by 84,500 units in 2016 compared to the previous year.
• At the end of September 2016, it amounted to a total of 5.26 million vehicles, of which 4.5 million were passenger cars.
• To this total can be added 720,400 motorcycles, resulting in a total stock of around 5.98 million motor vehicles.
• There were 539 passenger cars and 88 commercial vehicles per 1000 inhabitants.
• The transport performance of motorized private transport on the roads in 2016 is estimated at 96.5 billion passenger-kilometres (+1.5 billion/km or +1.6% compared to the previous year) and 17.2 billion tonne-kilometres (-0.3 billion Tkm or -1.9%) - on a nationwide road network of around 71,500 kilometers in length.
• NO2 levels are largely below or around the limit value. At exposed locations, such as in street canyons or directly next to a highway, the values can still be above the immission limit value.
• On the other hand, the favorable development of PM-10 pollution is impressive: the very strict limit value for particulate matter, which has been in force since 1997, has been complied with nationwide for some time.
• Only the figures for 2015 are available for total sales in the automotive industry in Switzerland. They have risen slightly compared to the previous year, by a good 0.5 billion to 90.7 billion francs. This increase is mainly due to the easing of new car sales in the reference year, which meant an increase in turnover of over CHF 600 million for the vehicle importers alone, who are members of the auto-schweiz association.
• The leasing business, the garage business and insurance in the vehicle sector also recorded increases in turnover.
• In contrast, the annual turnover of petrol companies, including refineries and petrol stations, fell once again, by a good CHF 2 billion to CHF 10.1 billion. This is due to the further increase in fuel efficiency of the motor vehicle fleet and the significant drop in sales at petrol stations along the Swiss borders as a result of the discontinuation of the minimum euro exchange rate in mid-January 2015.

The Vademecum 2017 contains a clear overview of the most important key figures relating to the automotive industry and private road transport. The PDF is available here.