With 72.088 passenger car registrations in the first quarter of 2019 the Swiss market was down 0.8% year-on-year. After the declining first two months of the year, new registrations increased again in March. With 28,728 registrations, almost 1.4%more passenger cars were registered this month than in the corresponding month last year.
Once again: Tactical registrations pushed the swiss market
While the Private Market recorded almost exactly the same number of new registrations as in the same period of the previous year, registrations in the True Fleet Market (- 7.0%) and among car rental companies/RAC (- 36.2%) fell again, in some cases significantly. Only tactical registrations for Dealer/Manufacturer increased once again by just under 33.1% and were thus, as in the first two months of the year, mainly responsible for the growth in commercial registrations (+ 3.1%).
The True Fleet Market accounted for around 21% of all registrations in March. At a cantonal level, the share of fleet registrations was highest in Zug at just under 32.6%. In Basel-Stadt (29.2%), Schwyz (25.8%) and Thurgau (25.4%) the shares was also well above the national average.
In March we saw an even split of positive and negative growth results for the top 10 manufacturers. With an increase of 21.0% compared to the same month last year, Skoda maintained its leading position ahead of its parent company Volkswagen and once again continues to increase the divide between them. BMW, Mercedes and Audi followed despite some losses.
Positive developments on the next positions were recorded for Renault (+ 9.9%), Tesla (+ 222.2%) and Seat (+ 78.3%). The top 10 passenger car brands were completed by Ford and Volvo in March which also suffered from the overall negative market conditions.
New competition at model level
A real upheaval is emerging at the model level. Although only launched in February, the Tesla Model 3 already occupied second place in March among the most registered fleet models. This means that the electric car was only surpassed by the ubiquitous Skoda Octavia, which remained at the forefront despite a 2.0 percent decline in volume, while the Seat Leon came in third position. In addition, the performance of the VW Transporter registered as a passenger car continued unabatedly (+ 530.0 %). Also, the Renault Megane (+ 224.3 %) attracted some attention with its significant growth.
