Switzerland January 2020: Volvo XC40 breaks into Top 5 in market down -10.2%

The Volvo XC40 hits its highest ever Swiss ranking at #5.

The Swiss new car market drops -10.2% year-on-year in January to 18.788 units. 4×4 sales are down -4.9% to 10.155 for a much improved 54.1% share vs. 51% a year ago, while alternatively fuelled registrations shoot up 110.4% to 3.628 and 19.3% vs. 8.2% in January 2019, including 2.690 hybrids (+110.5%) and 779 EVs (+79.5%). Volkswagen (-17.9%) remains the most popular carmaker with 11.7% share, just as BMW (+18.9%) soars to a round 10% and Mercedes (+2.7%) also gains ground to 9.7% share. Seat (+53.6%), Renault (+42.4%), Toyota (+14.5%) and Volvo (+13.4%) also post market-defying double-digit gains in the remainder of the Top 10.

Over in the models ranking, the Skoda Octavia (-40.1%) is back to the pole position it held over the FY2019 despite a damning loss, distancing the VW Tiguan (-15.4%) and Mercedes GLC (+13.9%) both up two spots on December. The VW Transporter (-25.6%) rallies back up 37 ranks on last month to #4 while the Volvo XC40 (+262.6%) delivers an incredible month – potentially thanks to the new PHEV variant – breaking into the Top 20, Top 10 and Top 5 for the first time all at once at #5, its previous best being #22 hit last October and November. The BMW X3 (-8.1%) is back up 13 spots on December to #6, with the Skoda Karoq (+7%) advancing one rank to #9 and the VW T-Roc (-8.2%) up 10 to #10. Among recent launches, the Toyota Corolla (#40), Tesla Model 3 (#42), Mazda CX-30 (#44) and VW T-Cross (#50) all make it into the Top 50.

Previous post: Switzerland 2019: 4WDs above 50% share, Skoda Octavia 3peats at #1, Tesla Model 3 wins 2 months

One year ago: Switzerland January 2019: VW, Skoda, Audi defy market down -3.4%

Full January 2020 Top 45 All-brands and Top 295 All-models below.