Market report · August 2026
The market shrinks, the electric cars grow
In August 2026, 16’047 passenger cars were newly registered in Switzerland, 0,6 per cent fewer than in the same month a year earlier. Of those, 4’800 were purely electric — 29,9 per cent, so almost every third new car. A year earlier the same month stood at 20,0 per cent. The overall market is flat, and what is being sold shifts nonetheless.
Two movements pointing the same way
Across the first eight months it is 151’589 passenger cars, 1,8 per cent more than in 2025. Purely electric were 37’226 or 24,6 per cent, with a plug — that is including plug-in hybrids and range extenders — 55’986 or 36,9 per cent. In the same period a year earlier those figures stood at 20,4 and 31,1 per cent.
The single month lies well above the annual average, and that is not an outlier but the usual pattern: the plug-in share rises towards the end of the year because manufacturers have fleet targets to meet. Anyone extrapolating the year from August overestimates. Anyone taking the annual average for the current state underestimates.
The ranking is tipping
The Tesla Model Y still leads the ranking but loses 11 per cent against the previous year. Škoda sits below it twice, with Elroq and Enyaq, and taken together would reach 4’443 vehicles — almost twice as many. In August alone both Škodas are ahead of the Model Y. This is not a snapshot: Elroq and Enyaq grow by 49 and 44 per cent, the Volvo EX30 by 48.
Almost every third new car ran purely on electricity in August. A year ago it was every fifth.
What this means for a purchase
A model registered 2’000 times a year has a used car market in three years. One with 200 does not. That is the practical core of these figures: how widespread a model is decides later resale value, workshop density and parts supply — not the test score at market launch.
Anyone buying today who wants to sell again in three to four years is therefore better served by the annual total than by the month. Anyone keeping a car for a long time can read the radar the other way round: a rarely registered model will be cheap in five years, because the used car market does not know it.
What these figures do not say
They count new registrations, not sales. A vehicle an importer registers on itself appears just like one a private person ordered. They also do not cover used imports, which add roughly another quarter on top — there is a separate article on that in the blog. And they say nothing about the fleet: 24,6 per cent of new cars are purely electric, but only a good 5 per cent of all passenger cars on Swiss roads.
Sources: auto-schweiz, new registration statistics (plug-in file and MOFIS total market), cut-off date 31.08.2026, passenger cars Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein. The register behind it: ASTRA, Vehicle Registration Information System (IVZ). Drivetrain shares cross-checked against the open ASTRA new registration data set via opendata.astra.admin.ch. The full analysis including the data extract is in the market report for the same cut-off date, linked under «Blog».
