in 2021, swiss car buyers had a new favorite. Tesla’s model 3 was the first e-car to top the list.
Best-selling car in switzerland in 2021: the model 3 from tesla.
The car market is recovering from the severe effects of the corona outbreak. But only very slowly. In 2019, 311,466 new passenger cars were registered in switzerland; in the first corona year of 2020, new registrations plummeted to 236,827. And things hardly looked any better in 2021: 238,481 new cars were registered, just 0.7% more than in the previous year. However, this is not due to cautious customers, but primarily to supply problems at the car manufacturers. These lack semiconductors. Many manufacturers adjusted their purchase agreements with chip manufacturers at the beginning of the pandemic, as they expected a drastic drop in production. The quotas were allocated to other customers and are now missing in the automotive industry. In addition, the chips have become a rare commodity anyway due to various production stoppages. And: no car leaves the assembly line without computer chips. Every vehicle, whether it’s a small car or a luxury coach, needs dozens of components to power the engine, navigation, on-board computer, assistance systems, etc. To steer. So cars suddenly became a scarce commodity. "we are not used to demand for new vehicles being significantly higher than supply," says christoph wolnik, press spokesman for auto schweiz, the association of car importers. An improvement is not expected until the second half of 2022. Until then, customers will have to reckon with long delivery times – and manufacturers often prefer more expensive models with a higher return on investment and cars with electric drive systems, as this keeps the CO2 emissions of the fleet sold within reasonable limits. "Since the start of the chip crisis, vehicle manufacturers and importers have consistently given preference to models with electric drives in production and delivery. This strategy has paid off in recent months and is now also reflected in the annual key figures," explains Christoph Wolnik. The statistics show that the market share of cars with alternative drives, i.e. mainly fully or partially electric, has risen significantly.