In the last three years there has been a clear trend towards cars with more environmentally friendly alternative drives. Not surprising. The range is becoming wider, the technology is constantly becoming more efficient – and the prices are nevertheless becoming more moderate. The speed of the alternative wave is even more surprising. While the market share of new cars with environmentally friendly hybrid, electric, hydrogen and gas drives was around seven percent in 2018, the share of these vehicles rose to 38.7 percent in the spring. The various alternative drive types are distributed very differently across the various car brands, as the table of all car brands with over 50 sales in Switzerland in the first quarter of 2021, created exclusively for SonntagsBlick by car consultant Guido Biffiger, shows.
Mild hybrids are ahead of the game
The mild hybrid models currently have the largest share of vehicles with alternative drives at 15.7 percent. These are cars that only have a starter generator and cannot drive purely electrically. A simple electric motor supports the combustion engine by starting the engine, supplying power for the vehicle, i.e. taking on the task of the starter or alternator, and recovering energy when braking. The fuel-saving potential of such cars is of course lower than that of normal hybrids or plug-in hybrids and is around ten percent. In return, the constructive effort for the manufacturer is not so high, but it can still be cannibalized from a marketing point of view. The premium brands Audi, BMW and Mercedes are strong in this area.
VW leader in e-vehicles
But the other alternative techniques are also increasing. The proportion of hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius rose by 2.3 to 6.2 percent compared to the same period in the previous year, and that of plug-in hybrids (cars with a combustion engine and battery for charging at the socket) by 3.6 7.9 percent increased. And the purely electric cars now have a market share of 8.6 percent – an increase of 3.0 percent compared to the first four months of 2020. VW is the new leader in electric vehicles in Switzerland. The brand from Wolfsburg has surpassed the previous leaders Tesla and Renault with their two new models ID.3 and ID.4.
If the proportions of alternatives increased, those of pure gasoline and diesel without electrification fell by 8.0 percent each. The decline in diesel is massive from almost 40 percent five years ago to just 16 percent. The share of new petrol-engined cars sold in the first quarter of 2021 was 45.3 percent. However, if you include the gasoline hybrid vehicles combined with electric drive, the proportion is still 71.0 percent.
Natural / natural gas drive no longer in demand
Techniques such as range extenders (currently only available from Ford Transit in Switzerland) and natural gas, which many experts have praised as the most environmentally friendly alternative, are hardly in demand anymore. Only five brands in Switzerland still offer gas-powered vehicles – the share of vehicles sold in the overall market is just 0.12 percent.
In return, hydrogen-powered vehicles are not only increasing in the number of trucks, but also in terms of cars. A fuel cell on board the vehicle uses hydrogen to produce electricity for the electric drive. As soon as the hydrogen filling station network is further expanded and the prices of the vehicles on offer drop so significantly, as recently with the Toyota Mirai (Mirai old 89,900 CHF, Mirai new 59,900 CHF), this alternative drive type should also increase significantly – but probably more in heavy trucks than in passenger cars.
Conclusion: Almost every sixth new Swiss car is now electrically powered. The efforts of politics to continuously stricter CO2Limits and those of the auto industry for the correspondingly economical drives are therefore bearing fruit. And Switzerland is evidently being convinced of the new technology.