Outlook: what is coming

800 volts becomes standard, not a luxury

For your purchase: 400 volts with 100 to 150 kW is enough day to day if you charge at home. On long journeys the difference decides between a quarter of an hour and half an hour per charging stop. In three years it will be a price argument at resale.

800 volts goes mainstream in 2026. The Mercedes CLA and GLC have it, as do many Chinese models. Charging power of 320 to 400 kW; for the GLC the manufacturer states 320 kilometres in ten minutes.

Solid-state batteries: real, but not for you

For your purchase: do not wait for it. The cell will first appear in cars costing CHF 100’000 and up. Until then LFP remains the standard: cheap, durable, and tolerant of frequent full charging.

In February 2026 BYD started a 2 GWh pilot line for sulphide-based solid-state cells and intends to fit the first production vehicles with them from the first quarter of 2027. The figures given are an energy density of around 400 Wh/kg and a WLTP equivalent of roughly 1000 kilometres. Today’s liquid lithium cells reach at most about 350 Wh/kg.

The schedule starts at the very top and is clearly staged: first the luxury brand Yangwang, from 2028 to 2029 the mid-range, mass market between 2030 and 2032. BYD’s own battery chief speaks of a demonstration phase until 2027 and broad deployment only from 2030.

Sources: BYD Investor Relations (09.02.2026), auto-motor-und-sport, VISION mobility, ThinkerCar, smartdroid.de. Range and energy density are manufacturer figures.

1 · The headline price usually belongs to the last version

Consequence: ask for the price of the version you will actually get, and for the delivery date. The advertised entry price is usually an announcement price.

ID.Polo from EUR 24’995, but only from summer 2027. At launch it starts at EUR 33’795. Renault Twingo from CHF 18’900, initially orderable only from CHF 20’900. The pattern repeats with almost every entry model.

2 · A whole segment is being created right now

Consequence: compare a used car between CHF 20’000 and 25’000 with a new car from this segment. The new car brings a full warranty and a battery with no history.

Twingo, ID.Polo, ID.Cross, Škoda Epiq, Cupra Raval, Kia EV2, Hyundai Inster, Dacia Spring, Leapmotor T03. From 2027 the VW ID.1 with a target price around EUR 20’000. Three years ago this segment did not exist.

But compare the battery size, not the price. The entry versions of these models have 27 to 42 kWh. The Twingo manages 262 km WLTP with 27,5 kWh, considerably less in real winter conditions. A three-year-old used car with 60 kWh can be the more useful vehicle at the same price. Set your minimum range first — “My EV” works it out. Only then look at the price tags.

3 · Names say less than they used to

Consequence: look at the vehicle registration document, not the model name. With hybrids all the more so: “hybrid” in the title says nothing about a charging port. More on this in the blog.

Mercedes drops EQ, VW assigns the ID models to existing lines and replaces GTX with GTI, and the ID.4 may become the ID.Tiguan. BMW is the only one of the three to keep an unambiguous marker with the leading i.

4 · The used market is only now filling up

Consequence: the registration wave from 2022 to 2025 is now tipping into the used market. More supply, lower prices. Just under a third comes from company fleets. There a battery test is mandatory.

At the end of 2025 there were 249’832 pure electric cars licensed in Switzerland, 5,2 percent of the entire passenger car fleet. 71 percent are registered to private individuals, 29 percent to companies.

Source: Federal Statistical Office, road vehicle statistics 2025, press release of 04.02.2026.

5 · A new levy could arrive from 2030

The federal government finances road infrastructure entirely through its users, and the largest source of income is the mineral oil tax. The more driving is done electrically, the less flows in. On 26 September 2025 the Federal Council therefore sent two variants out for consultation, to be introduced from 2030.

What it costs. At 12’000 kilometres a year and 18 kWh per 100 kilometres it would be around CHF 648 under the distance variant or CHF 492 under the charging variant. For comparison: the energy saving against a petrol car with this profile is around CHF 827 a year. The levy would therefore absorb 60 to 78 percent of it.

Both variants need a measurement that does not exist today: one in the vehicle, the other at every charging point.

Sources: ASTRA, consultation draft of 26.09.2025 — draft E-Vehicle Levy Act and draft E-Vehicle Tax Act with their rate annexes, plus the explanatory report; ASTRA, «Concept for replacing the mineral oil taxes», report to the Federal Council of 29.06.2022, for costs and the collection concept; PTOLEMUS Consulting Group for ASTRA, study on technical solutions without geolocation, 05.05.2023; SRF, watson and Schweizer Bauer on the consultation; Swiss eMobility on its statement; auto-schweiz, position paper «A new way of financing transport infrastructure» of 04.09.2026 (auto.swiss). Mineral Oil Tax Act (MinOTA), Art. 9, for how the mineral oil tax is collected.

6 · The United Kingdom goes first, from 2028

The comparison is worth making: the British 2,2 centimes per kilometre are well below the 5,4 centimes the Swiss proposal envisages on average. Anyone wanting to place the Swiss proposal has a yardstick here.

There the matter is settled. From 1 April 2028 the Electric Vehicle Excise Duty applies, on top of the existing vehicle tax. Three pence per mile for pure electric and fuel-cell vehicles, roughly 2,2 euro cents per kilometre. Plug-in hybrids pay half the rate because they also pay fuel duty. Full hybrids without a charging port are not covered.

At 12’900 kilometres a year that is around 240 pounds. It is recorded via the odometer reading at the annual registration, plus an estimate for the coming year with a settlement at the end. The government has explicitly ruled out satellite location tracking. Around 80 percent of the revenue from the first three years is to flow into a support package.

Sources: HM Treasury via Handelsblatt, auto-motor-und-sport and elektroauto-news.net, July 2026. Der Spiegel reported on both countries; the article itself could not be opened directly during research, and the reference comes from a secondary source.

7 · The big lever today is the cantonal vehicle tax

Consequence: first check the vehicle tax in your canton for the specific vehicle, then the support available for a charging point. In most cantons a purchase incentive is not a factor at all. And do not budget with figures from an overview page — use those from your cantonal office, because the rules change often.

There has been no federal purchase incentive since 2024. Direct cantonal purchase incentives are rare: Ticino up to CHF 4000 for new vehicles with a list price up to CHF 50’000, Vaud up to CHF 2000 depending on income, Basel-Stadt up to CHF 3500 for vehicles under 50 g CO2 per kilometre. There is nothing more.

Far more money sits in the annual vehicle tax. The differences there are enormous. A TCS comparison of six models shows, for the most powerful electric car: zero francs in Zurich, Solothurn and Glarus, but 921 francs in Fribourg and 909 in Schwyz. Even for the small Dacia Spring the range runs from zero francs in Zurich, Solothurn, Glarus and Nidwalden, through 250 francs in Neuchâtel, to just under 400 francs in Appenzell Ausserrhoden. auto-schweiz calls it a tax lottery.

Over eight years of ownership that is a difference of up to 7000 francs, more than any purchase incentive in Switzerland. It depends solely on where you live.

Where to look this up for where you live

Sources: TCS vehicle tax comparison (as of February 2026), auto-schweiz (25.06.2026), EnergieSchweiz, Canton of Zurich, streetlife.ch (03.02.2026) on St. Gallen and Solothurn. The incentive amounts for Ticino, Vaud and Basel-Stadt come from an overview page and should be confirmed with the canton before a purchase.