Market: New laws weakened sales
REVIEW As expected, the car market in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein had an eventful year in 2018. This is reflected in the total number of 299,716 passenger cars registered for the first time. Due to the changeover to new emissions standards and the resulting delays in delivery, numerous vehicles ordered could not be delivered to customers in the old year. [...]
This can be seen from the total number of 299,716 passenger cars registered for the first time. Due to the changeover to new emissions standards and the resulting delays in delivery, numerous vehicles ordered could not be delivered to customers in the old year. This led to a drop in new registrations of 4.6% compared to 2017, when 314,028 new passenger cars were registered for the first time.
December was the weakest month
The delayed deliveries were particularly noticeable in December. With 27,539 new cars delivered, the last calendar month of 2018 was 11.4% below the previous year's result. While December has usually been one of the strongest months in recent years, in 2018 it was in fourth place behind March, May and June. The fact that December 2018 only had 17 working days, two fewer than the same month in the previous year, certainly plays a significant role in this development.
Swiss rely on alternative drives
With 21,591 registrations, the previous year's figure for hybrid, electric, hydrogen and CNG vehicles was exceeded by a full 22.9%. Their market share rose accordingly to 7.2 percent from 5.6 percent previously. The proportion of all-wheel drive vehicles also reached a new high. It climbed from 47.5% to 49.1%, meaning that almost every second new passenger car had all-wheel drive in 2018.
