Registration of new cars fell significantly in 2022 (symbol image)
Gasoline engines still dominated among the cars driving on local roads for the first time, but the proportion of diesel cars was lower than that of purely electrically powered vehicles for the first time. The total number of motor vehicles, on the other hand, continued to rise.
Specifically, according to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), the number of new vehicle registrations fell by 7.8 percent last year compared to 2021 to a total of 322,387 motor vehicles. Compared to the last “pre-Covid year” 2019, the minus was even 21.2 percent, as the BFS announced on Tuesday.
War aggravated bottlenecks
The Federal Office also cited the war in Ukraine as one reason for the decline. This has exacerbated the supply bottlenecks that have existed since the pandemic.
According to the BFS figures, the car market has suffered less than the rest of the motor vehicle market. If you only look at the registrations of passenger cars, then the minus was “only” 5.2 percent. The minus compared to the pre-Corona year 2019 is larger here at 26.6 percent.
In addition, according to the BFS, significantly fewer cars were registered, especially from March to July 2022. The Russian attack on Ukraine, combined with the after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the slowdown in the economy during this period, once again pushed down the number of newly registered cars.
Electric cars expand market share
“After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the supply difficulties for the manufacturers worsened again, among other things, the cable harnesses, many of which came from Ukrainian factories, were now missing,” says the statement.
At the end of the summer, the supply situation stabilized a little again and in October and November gains in the double-digit percentage range were registered.
Meanwhile, electric cars were able to further expand their market share. For the whole of 2022, 17.7 percent of newly registered passenger cars were purely electrically powered cars. That is 4.4 percentage points more than in 2021.
However, the vast majority of new passenger car registrations in 2022 were still classic petrol cars. These led the ranking with a share of 37.6 percent (2021: 41.6%). The so-called normal hybrids followed in second place with 25.3 percent (2021: 22.5%).
For the first time, less diesel than electric cars
Remarkable: In 2022, at 11.6 percent (2021: 13.5%), the proportion of diesel cars was lower than that of purely electrically powered vehicles for the first time.
The number of newly registered motorcycles, on the other hand, has really collapsed. Accordingly, in 2022 compared to the previous year, 13.6 percent or a total of 48,799 fewer “Töffs” were registered. However, the previous year 2021 was an absolute record year for motorcycles due to changed regulations for obtaining a motorcycle driver’s license.
In general, however, Swiss roads are becoming increasingly crowded. In 2022, the total number of vehicles in Switzerland increased to almost 6.4 million motorized road vehicles – excluding “mopeds” and e-bikes. According to the BFS, this is 0.5 percent more than in 2021. Three quarters of all road vehicles registered for traffic are passenger cars.
The statistics are based on the vehicle data from the information system Road Traffic Licensing, which records all road vehicles registered in Switzerland with the exception of mopeds and e-bikes.
(SDA)