Swiss passenger car market also declines in February

Swiss passenger car market in February 2020

In the second month of the new year, the Swiss passenger car market again suffered significant declines. This affected both the private market (- 18.2%) and commercial registrations (- 12,2%). For the car market as a whole this meant an overall decline of 15.2%, compared to the same period of the previous year.

A glance at the detailed commercial channels reveals a similar development as at the beginning of the year. While company registrations in the True Fleet market fell by 14.1%, combined registrations for Dealer/Importers were down by as much as 17.5%. The detailed analysis shows that registrations of Importers, declined in particular (- 39.1%). By comparison, registrations of Dealers (- 10.9%) fell rather moderately. However, registrations of Rental companies increased again (+ 4.6%), which after two months is now more than 6.3% above the volume from the same period last year.

True Fleet market: VW recaptures position #1

The declines within the True Fleet market are also reflected in the performance of the various importers. Only 4 of the top 15 importer brands were able to register more company cars in February than in the same period last year: Renault (+ 47.4%), Toyota (+ 27.5%), Audi (+ 18.9%) and Volvo
(+ 3.5%). Podium places of the last month were VW (- 2.2%) in first place ahead of sister company Skoda (- 21.2%), with BMW (- 14.3%) taking third.

Mild and Plug-in hybrids in demand

An analysis of fuel trends in Swiss company fleets showed a further decline in the number of cars powered purely by diesel (- 9.4%) and purely by petrol (- 9.4%). Triple-digit growth rates for so called mild hybrids, which Dataforce considers to be one of the aforementioned fuel categories, could not change this. Hybrid vehicles were also very popular, especially plug-in hybrids (+ 156.1%). The Volvo XC60, the DS 7 Crossback and the Porsche Cayenne were the top three most sought-after plug-in hybrid models among Swiss fleet managers. On the other hand, registrations for electric vehicles were unable to capture a similar level for the same month of last year, falling by 21.4%.

Light commercial vehicles with decline in February

Registrations of light commercial vehicles up to 3.5t fell by 3.4% last February. A renewed growth in the private market (+ 4.0%) was thus only able to mitigate the losses in commercial registrations (- 4.9%). Within the detailed commercial channels, the True Fleet market fell by 4.1%, while registrations for Dealers/Importers fell by as much as 16.3%. Mirroring the passenger car channel, just on a larger scale, the LCV channel rental company registrations increased by  62.5%.

In the importer ranking within fleet registrations, VW (+ 21.2%) again occupied the first place for February. Ford (+ 26.2%), on the other hand, managed to distance itself somewhat from Mercedes (- 16.3%) and occupied second place both on a monthly and annual year-to-date basis.