Market: Campers are light at the end of the tunnel

With 6005 new campers, the previous high from 2019 was again significantly exceeded. A light at the end of the tunnel.

The auto-schweiz members are positive about developments in 2021 - provided that the restrictions caused by the pandemic remain within manageable limits.

Minus lower than for passenger cars
The Swiss commercial vehicle market was hit harder in 2020, with a drop of 13.5 percent, even if the decline was smaller than that of new passenger vehicle registrations (minus 24.0 percent).

After 44,472 new vehicles were put into circulation in 2019, the level in 2020 was 6034 lower, with the individual segments developing differently.

Fourth quarter exceeded expectations
Light commercial vehicles up to 3.5 tons closed 2020 with 28,035 redemptions, down from 34,555 the previous year.

Christoph Wolnik, media spokesman for the Association of Swiss Automobile Importers auto-schweiz: "Our forecast in the fall was still for 26,000 new vans and transporters, so in this respect the year-end spurt in the fourth quarter exceeded our expectations."

The market for heavy goods transport vehicles is also set to decline in 2020, albeit at a slightly lower rate of 16.6 percent than for light commercial vehicles. After 4291 new trucks and semitrailers in 2019, the number of redemptions fell to 3579.

Slump in car sales amounts to 41 percent
Silver lining at the end of last year is the growth in registrations of new vehicles for passenger transport. At 6924, the figure is 1198 units or 20.9 percent higher than the previous year's result. A full 6005 registrations are accounted for by motor homes, which increased by 1239 units.

The downside of the pandemic can be seen in the number of new cars. In view of the slump in bus travel, only 141 new vehicles were registered in 2020, compared with 239 in the previous year - a drop of 41 percent.

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