Switzerland August 2023: Tesla Model Y distant leader, Smart #1 up

The Smart #1 is inside the Swiss Top 40 in August.

New car sales in Switzerland gain 15.8% year-on-year in August to 18,977 units, meaning the year-to-date volume is now up 13.9% to 161,328. 4×4 sales follow the market at +16.1% for the month to 9,440 and 49.7% share vs. 49.6% a year ago, and are up 15.2% YTD to 81,269 and 50.4% share vs. 49.8% over the same period in 2022. Petrol sales are down -10.1% to 6,038 and 31.8% share vs. 41% a year ago but up 3.3% YTD to 56,420 and 35% share vs. 38.6%. Diesel drops -13.6% to 1,769 and 9.3% share vs. 12.5% and is down -10.6% YTD to 15,615 and 9.7% share vs. 12.3%. HEV climb 27.4% to 5,165 and 27.2% share vs. 24.7% and are up 25.5% YTD to 44,004 and 27.3% share vs. 24.8% last year. PHEV soar 37.2% to 1,715 for the month and up 17.1% YTD to 14,125. Finally BEVs shoot up 87% to 4,289 and 22.6% share vs. 14% a year ago and are up 39.5% YTD to 31,102 and 19.3% share vs. 15.7% in 2022.

In the brands ranking, Top 5 best-sellers are all slow and trail the market. Volkswagen (+5.3%) remains the most popular at 10.4% share, above BMW (+11.6%) up two spots on July and now #3 year-to-date, Audi (+8.2%), Mercedes (-6.1%) and Skoda (+0.3%) down three ranks on last month to #5 but still #2 year-to-date. Toyota (+43.2%) soars year-on-year but stays #6 with Tesla (+178%) the most dynamic in the Top 10 by far. Hyundai (+37.7%) also vastly beats the market at #9 while Ford (+10.5%) is shy and Dacia (-12.8%) skids on a particularly high year-ago comparison base. Volvo (+83.3%), Renault (+81.4%) and Kia (+64.2%) also shine.

Model-wise, the Tesla Model Y (+175.5%) is faithful to the pole position it easily holds year-to-date, accounting for 3.6% of the market this month and 2.5% so far this year. The Skoda Octavia (-6.5%) suffers but still ranks #2 YTD, while the Audi Q3 (+11.6%) is #3 both for the month and YTD. The Dacia Sandero (+53.9%) is up 46 spots on July to #4 while the Mercedes GLC (+93.4%) rounds out the Top 5. The BMW X1 (+888.2%) is back up to #6, distancing the Toyota Yaris (+28.2%) and VW Polo (+47.7%). The VW T-Roc (-5.4%) and Tiguan (-5.9%) round out the Top 10 but disappoint. The BMW iX1 is the best-selling recent launch at #15 followed by the Smart #1 at #39.

Previous month: Switzerland July 2023: Volvo, Toyota improve, sales up 18.7%

One year ago: Switzerland August 2022: Dacia shows off, Skoda Octavia and Fiat 500 top stable market (-0.4%)

Full August 2023 Top 55 All brands and Top 330 All models below.