Switzerland Passenger Car Sales : 2026 (Jan-Feb)

Registrations were 3% in February and down 4% YTD. Volkswagen is the perennial leader and even slightly improved its market share. Škoda is in second place with BMW breathing down its neck. Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai both had hiccups, or are their slumps more enduring?

SEAT and Cupra sales are combined by the source, but are separated here. I don't know why they persist in doing it this way. Separation can't be done perfectly, with SEAT sales listed below being slightly better than they should be and Cupra the reverse. The 2025 share figure below is for a full year.

Data source: Auto Swiss. Photo Zeekr (001) Switzerland.

Switzerland Top 50 Models : 2025

Brands of German origin or ownership do very well here. That is reflected in the chart below. It's colour coded by region and Europe (green) predominates.

VW and Škoda registrations went well and it shows. The Tesla Model Y lost its top spot to the VW Tiguan. Škoda has three modes in the top ten. Cupra was up 56% with the new Terramar leading the way. 

Data source: Auto Swiss.

Photo source: VW CH (Golf) & Cupra CH (Terramar).

Switzerland Car Sales : 2025

Registrations were down 2% for the year. So things are a bit subdued down at the local car dealer. Some recent years have had volumes up around 325,000 and the 2025 total was nearly 100,000 below that.

VW overtook long time leader Opel in 1999 and has led ever since despite the attention of BMW amd now Škoda. It's hard to believe that Opel is now 21st but they are not the brand they were last century so in that sense not surprising. 

Tesla has fallen from 8th to 11th but that is better than many countries in Europe. SEAT includes a relatively few sales that should be attributed to Cupra but that didn't stop the latter unseating its older sibling. 

Apart from the strong Germanic presence, Japanese and Korean do quite well but China has had little impact so far. They are ominously gathering toward the lower end of the chart however.

For 2024 articles, simply click on the links below:

By brand. 

Top 50 Models.

Data source: Auto Swiss.

Switzerland Top 50 : 2024

European models dominate here, especially those from north of the border and those owned by them. Tesla is an exception with the Model Y at the top for a third year. Before that it was the Tesla Model 3 (picture above) once and the Škoda Octavia (picture below) for four years prior. The other model from a brand from outside of Europe to do well is the Toyota Yaris at 9th. After that a smattering here and there. 

Data source: Auto Swiss.

Swiss Passenger Car Sales : 2024

Registrations were down 6% in December and also down 5% for the complete year. VW remains top as it has since 1999 when it took over from Opel. Opel is currently 21st so quite a fall over the intervening years. VW's 10% share is the lowest share for the top brand in Switzerland going back many decades at least. 

Audi is down when most higher placed ones are in the green and Ford too is suffering. Cupra is just the the models that are exclusive to that brand which isn't all they sell but what I have data for. The ones unknown are under SEAT. As that is the same criteria as 2023, the drop in Cupra sales volume is comparing like for like. I don't know when Auto Swiss will process Cupra as a separate brand but it's their call obviously.

Data source: Auto Swiss.

Austria / Switzerland Brand Comparison : 2023

Two car markets in the middle of Europe are compared in a brand head to head. Market share is compared and a percentage figure favouring one country appears in that country's side of the charts. Some predictable outcomes and the odd surprise.

Overview: Austria isn't a poor country but Switzerland through various means (some good, others not so) is on another level of affluence.

German brands: VW is the big brand here and it heavily favours Austria to the tune of 25%. It doesn't sound like a game changer but considering the volume involved, yes. 

It effectively pushes the majority of brands into the Swiss side. All the German premium brands are there apart from Opel.  

UK Brands: None make the Austrian side, in part because they are premium anyway. Nevertheless, there is huge disparity for most, Jaguar being the closest to Austria. 

French Brands: Renault and its budget brand Dacia do better in Austria as does Citroën and Peugeot is a marginal case. A win to Austria in this case. 

Japanese brands: Mazda is strongly for Austria, Mitsubishi solidly and Suzuki marginally. The rest are on the other side. 

The rest: Korea is much stronger in Austria but Ssangyong didn't get the memo. The USA is leans to the Swiss and the Italian marques very much. I wonder if the Italian speaking part of the country helped there? 

Summary: VW is extremely popular in Austria while the premium and luxury makes were the other way. The latter was assumed correctly but I thought VW may have been evenly split.  

Switzerland Top 50 Sales : 2023

In a land that buys European makes Tesla is making a statement. It looks isolated at the top with even the mighty Toyota unable to offer much support. No one brand dominates the top with a broad range battling it out. German marques and those owned by them dominate. 

Some brands are bringing out electric models of an ICE vehicle so I combine them where I think it's appropriate. If petrol and diesel engines aren't segregated, why electric? When all cars are electric in Europe, this will become unnecessary. 

Data source: Auto Schweiz.

Swiss Passenger Car Sales : 2023

Registrations were +9% in December and +12% for the year in total. Not startling and a sign it may have settled down now that stock is flowing. German brands and premium/luxury marques do well here. VW is always well on top, with Mercedes and BMW traditionally trading places just below. Audi has got in between them to make it more interesting. Škoda moved past all of them and up into the second spot. 

Cupra is strangely still included in the SEAT total so I separate them as best I can. Cupra as listed below is only the Formentor and Born models which are the vast majority of sales anyway. The rest are included in SEAT. This does mean that Cupra does slightly worse than its figure suggests and the opposite for SEAT. 

Brands from China have yet to make inroads here. Lotus had a sales spurt with the Emira and latterly the Eletre. The 'Diff' column shows market share change.

Data source: Auto Schweiz.

Switzerland Top 50 Sales By Model : 2022

Tesla managed to secure two spots in the top five on the model sales chart. It sits eighth as a brand but with few models in the range the ones they have do well numerically. Blue highlights brands of European origin and that is the main colour by far. 

The Dacia Sandero is doing well in a country known for buying top end models. It shows that value has a place everywhere. I'm looking forward to seeing the brand in NZ one day. Asian models are like hen's teeth at the top end of the list. 

Data source: Auto Schweiz.

Switzerland Sales : 2022

Registrations for December were +1% and for the year -5%. VW as always is top and extended that in 2022. BMW and Mercedes battle it out for second placing with Audi not too far removed from the action. It's a very pro-German brand market. The '+/- diff' column below is for market share change. 

Tesla has forced its way into the top ten and Dacia is threatening to do the same. The SEAT figure slumped as spin off brand Cupra did the opposite. The supplier of data doesn't separate the two but sales of models that clearly are Cupra can be extracted. That's what I have done but it isn't an ideal solution. Eventually, Auto Schweiz will surely differentiate the two. 

It's interesting to see the Ineos brand arrive on the scene, the first market I've seen this. It only arrived in December and next year will show how sales will go but with all the Chinese brands arriving, it's rare to find a new brand from Europe making its debut (see pic below).

Data source: Auto Schweiz.

Switzerland Top 50 Sales By Model : 2021

To find out more about models sold in Switzerland, I colour coded the list to show where brands historically originated. From this we see that European marques win hands down here. The Tesla 3 became the best selling model it's true and that was a surprising result in a country not hugely behind electric cars. 

Point of note: The VW Golf was the best selling model for many a year. That changed in 2017, when the Škoda Octavia took over, It was at the top for four years before losing out this year by just 100 registrations to Tesla 3. I doubt any model will be at the top very long now as market forces initiate more volatility. 

Data source: Auto Schweiz.

Switzerland Sales : 2021

A funny place to eat your fish 'n chips

Registrations for December were -17% and +1% YTD. The 238,000 registrations were well short of the usual 300,000 plus of pre-covid days. To find out the winners in the share stakes, the '+/-' column below is comparing market share variance for 2021 with 2020. 

The top brands all did OK in a boring sort of way while Audi and Toyota have noticeably improved. Of the others, it likewise was very even with not that much change. The Cupra brand is a new one, separate from its parent SEAT. It is combined in the official data but I have separated the Formentor and Born models and counted them only. 

Point of note: While the take up of electric cars here is reasonable, it's not that high. Apparently, many Swiss are put off by the environmental impact of both batteries and electricity generation. Purchase price, range anxiety and charging infrastructure also was deterring potential buyers. So the sales chart below has a more 'normal' feel to it. 

Data source: Auto Schweiz.

Switzerland Premium Comparison : 2018-20

Audi is the third most popular premium brand
so I thought it necessary to give it a plug

Mercedes is the strongest brand name in this segment but BMW/MINI combined is the bets selling. JLR was well down, presumably a policy to improve margin at the expense of moving metal. Alfa Romeo has been steadily declining and the new company that has formed that owns the marque will be moving to sort that out.

Data source: Auto-Schweiz.

Switzerland Top 50 : 2020

Data source: Auto-Schweiz.

Switzerland Car Sales : 2020

Renault is doing OK here

Swiss sales were -15% in December and -24% YTD so things are still somewhat depressed, albeit consistently. Of the three types, only one brand actually increased sales (green), many at least gained a share increase (pale blue) and then those that could manage neither (yellow).

Mercedes is closing in on the top placing. Both Benz and BMW are doing well. Ford and Opel both lost ground heavily, with Opel falling from 6th to 19th in a few years. Suzuki and Citroën are likewise going in the same direction. The top five all have German connections. Renault, Volvo and MINI all got close to an increase in registration, as did Tesla and Porsche. 

Data source: Auto Schweiz.

Swiss / Austria JLR Comparison : 2010-18

These two nations are close in many ways. Even the number of cars sold here is similar, over the past nine years it's 311,800 to 330,600. However, the Swiss do buy more premium cars so this should favour that country. Interestingly Austria started making Jaguar cars recently, the E-Pace and i-Pace.

The data: Switzerland has bought 29,000 LRs and 9,000 Jaguar cars over this time for a toal of 38,000. Austria is about half that number in both instances. Even Jaguar's portion of about 24% is similar. Amazing. Jaguar is now pulling away in 2018 in Austria, to 39% of the JLR total. The locally made E-Pace having an effect.

	Switzerland						Austria
	311,779						330,624
Yr	LR	Jag	JLR	% Jag		Yr	LR	Jag	JLR	% Jag
10	1,488	612	2,100	29.1		10	924	372	1,296	28.7
11	1,803	461	2,264	20.4		11	979	268	1,247	21.5
12	3,789	511	4,300	11.9		12	1,913	300	2,213	13.6
13	3,454	888	4,342	20.5		13	2,068	340	2,408	14.1
14	3,490	621	4,111	15.1		14	1,864	265	2,129	12.4
15	3,800	979	4,779	20.5		15	1,745	407	2,152	18.9
16	3,941	1,791	5,732	31.2		16	2,066	955	3,021	31.6
17	3,546	1,295	4,841	26.8		17	2,257	944	3,201	29.5
18	3,809	1,958	5,767	34.0		18	1,798	1,154	2,952	39.1
Tot	29,120	9,116	38,236	23.8		Tot	15,614	5,005	20,619	24.3
%	1.04	0.32	1.36			%	0.52	0.17	0.69

Summary: There really isn't much to separate these two countries on many levels and with JLR, the closeness continues. Granted, the Swiss have about double the market penetration but as already stated with more premium cars sold there, that is understandable. 

Switzerland Premium Comparison : 2010-16

Premium cars are proving popular in many nations. They are often outselling cheaper mainstream brand while at the same time making more profit. More recently the most aggressive attack on this segment have been the BAM marques, BMW, Audi and Mercedes Benz. However other car makers are striking back and the competition is heating up. So a look at sales in this decade would be interesting.

First taking the BAM brands out of the equation, how are things shaping up in Switzerland? From 2010 to 2016, other premium sales were up 37%. Now individually: Infiniti +292%, JLR +173% (LR +165% Jag +193%) Porsche +130% Cadillac +18% Volvo +2% Lexus -4% and Alfa Romeo -61%.

Year	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010
Total	22,020	20,453	17,870	17,646	18,822	18,406	16,109
Volvo	7,130	7,251	6,867	7,710	8,059	8,478	6,973
JLR	5,732	4,788	4,112	4,344	4,300	2,264	2,100
Land Rover	3,941	3,808	3,490	3,454	3,789	1,803	1,488
Jaguar	1,791	980	622	890	511	461	612
Porsche	4,240	4,305	3,165	2,518	2,310	2,178	1,843
Tesla	1,701	1,556	496	216	25	51	44
Alfa Romeo	1,509	1,249	2,104	1,989	2,818	4,106	3,901
Lexus	861	943	853	658	1,022	1,002	898
Infiniti	619	227	118	83	153	173	158
Cadillac	228	134	155	128	135	154	192

Summary: Infiniti Land Rover and Jaguar grew the most. Volvo remained about equal and Alfa Romeo can hope for better days in the future.

                                                 *******************

Now adding the other brands to the BAM marques, how do things stack up? Total sales growth goes to 47%, due to the BAM brands increasing 50%. The 'Others' took 25% in 2010 and 23% in 2016. The BAM marques took 77% of all premium sales in 2016.

Year	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010
Total	95,491	94,526	82,810	80,727	81,104	73,090	65,087
BMW Group	30,047	28,964	25,607	25,090	23,561	22,145	19,870
BMW	24,780	24,103	21,144	20,364	18,968	17,564	16,079
Mini	5,267	4,861	4,463	4,726	4,593	4,581	3,791
Mercedes	23,842	22,884	18,384	16,737	16,638	14,037	12,198
Others	22,020	20,453	17,870	17,646	18,822	18,406	16,109
Audi	19,582	22,225	20,949	21,254	22,083	18,502	16,910

Summary: The BAM trio are getting their Germanic support as expected. Mercedes has passed Audi in this time period. The three biggest in 2016 were 1) BMW & Mini, 2)  Mercedes 3) Audi.

Data source: Auto Schweiz
Text source: RayCee.