Market: Light at the end of the tunnel at last
For the first time since the beginning of the crisis, the car market in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein has grown again. With 25,236 passenger cars sold, March saw a year-on-year increase of 43.7 percent. As a result of this gain, which is attributable to the marked drop in Corona registrations in March 2020 to 17,556, the first quarter [...]
Due to this gain, which can be attributed to the sharp drop in Corona registrations in March 2020 to 17,556, the market actually grew slightly by 1.9 percent to 56,497 new registrations after the first quarter. For the further development, auto-schweiz is cautiously optimistic. Nevertheless, there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel.
Brands register increased demand
The showrooms of the Swiss garages have been open again for a month, after the pandemic-related closure in January and February.
Christoph Wolnik of the importers' association auto-schweiz: "Our members' brand dealers have been registering increased demand ever since. Spring business is and remains very important in the automotive trade - Corona has not changed this. Bottlenecks in the supply of microchips could lead to possible delivery delays for individual models."
Electric and hybrid drives remain in demand
The market share of models not powered purely by gasoline or diesel rose further in the first quarter to 36.7 percent. A year ago, this figure was 21.2 percent.
A total of 20,756 new registrations in the first three months of the year were for hybrid, electric, gas and hydrogen drives, compared with 11,731 in the previous year - an increase of 76.9 percent. Of these, 11,624 new passenger cars alone have a hybrid drive without an external charging option, an increase of 92.1 percent.
There have also been significantly more new electric cars (4736, up 51.7 percent) and plug-in hybrids (4315, up 89 percent) on the roads of Switzerland and Liechtenstein since the beginning of the year.
