Switzerland March 2020: Mitsubishi (+39.1%), Porsche (+22%) only islands of growth in market down -39.4%

The Porsche Taycan breaks into the Swiss Top 100 in March.

The Swiss government has so far avoided imposing strict lockdown measures to its population, instead opting for the ban of all events with more than 1.000 participants on February 28 – which triggered  the cancellation of the Geneva Auto Show, as well as school and non-essential store closures on March 20. However as of April 7 Switzerland remains among the 10 most affected countries in the world with 22.194 confirmed cases, a figure that is likely far below the real number as the Swiss government has had an official policy of not testing people with only mild symptoms.

As a result car showrooms have had to close and Swiss new car sales plummet -39.4% year-on-year in March to 17.556 registrations, pulling the year-to-date tally down -23% to 55.452. 4×4 sales resist slightly better than the market this mont hat -35.8% to 9.554 and 54.4% share vs. 51.4% a year ago, in line with their YTD performance at -19.7% to 29.468 and 53.1% of the Swiss market vs. 50.9% over the same period in 2019. Alternatively fuelled vehicle sales ignore the market collapse to soar +21.3% year-on-year in March at 4.467 sales and 25.4% share vs. 12.7% in March 2019, leading to a  year-to-date AFV volume up 59.6% to 11.731 and 21.2% share vs. 10.2%. PHEV is the most dynamic segment at +169% in March and +193.1% YTD while HEV is up 37.5% in March and 75.1% YTD but BEV drops -16.1% to 1.558 this month while remaining up 3.2% to 3.121 YTD.

Brand-wise, Volkswagen (-30.9%), BMW (-13.4%) and Mercedes (-29.8%) all resist better than the market on the podium, distancing Skoda (-40.1%) and Audi (-50.9%) which aren’t so lucky. In the remainder of the Top 10, Toyota (-29.3%), Renault (-31.3%), Tesla (-34%) and Seat (-34.7%) also do “well” in context whereas Ford (-44.9%) crumbles. Further down, Mitsubishi (+39.1%) and Porsche (+22%) are the only islands of growth in the Top 30, with Infiniti (+46.7%) and Ferrari (+4.7%) also up among small brands.

Model-wise, the Tesla Model 3 (-32.7%) follows its traditional end-of-quarter volume backload, ranking #1 like in March and December 2019 vs. #79 in February and now #4 YTD as it was over the FY2019. The Skoda Octavia (-31.6%) is down to #2 for the month but remains #1 YTD, with the VW Tiguan (-7.2%), Mercedes GLC (-32.3%) and BMW X3 (+19.1%) rounding out the Top 5. The Mercedes GLE (+156.5%), CLA (+148%), Mitsubishi Outlander (+93.8%), Space Star (+40.4%), Renault Zoe (+30.5%), VW Passat (+26.1%), BMW 1 Series (+25%) and X1 (+10.6%) are also up in the Top 40. The VW T-Cross (#40) tops recent launches above the Skoda Kamiq (#47) and Mazda CX-30 (#49) while the Porsche Taycan breaks into the Top 100 at #97.

Previous month: Switzerland February 2020: Captur (+212.5%), Zoe (+193.4%) propel Renault up 37.8% in market down -13.8%

One year ago: Switzerland March 2019: Tesla Model 3 spectacularly takes the lead in first market uptick in 8 months

Full March 2020 Top 50 All-brands and Top 315 All-models below.