Is Switzerland’s Electric Vehicle Story A Preview For The Rest Of The Globe?

For a long time, Norway was the ultimate trendsetter when it came to the future of electric vehicle adoption. Now there’s another country worth admiring. Known for exquisite chocolates, fine watches, secretive banks, and Roger Federer — Switzerland is now making some waves on the EV scene.

It turns out that last year, an electric car sold more units than any other car (gasoline, diesel, hybrid, etc.) in Switzerland. The Tesla Model 3 didn’t just rule all EV sales in Switzerland, but also all types of cars.

The following chart released by the Swiss IVT Astra shows that Tesla’s Model 3 has beaten the sales of every car in the country in 2021.

Model 3 is #1 in Switzerland (incl. ICE vehicles) in 2021! from teslamotors

To that end, Tesla sold 5,072 units of the Model 3 sedan in Switzerland in 2021. The closest Model 3 competitor in the country was the internal combustion engine Škoda Octavia, with 4,969 units sold.

The closest electric vehicle that came anywhere near the Model 3’s sales was the Volkswagen ID.3, which came in 19th place on the 2021 Swiss car sales chart. Volkswagen sold 2,423 units of the ID.3 in Switzerland last year.

According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, electric vehicle adoption in the country is growing at an exponential rate. Comparing Nov 2021 to Nov 2020, new car registrations for electric vehicles grew an impressive +63%.

Switzerland’s new vehicle registrations by vehicle type in November, year over year. (Source: The Swiss Federal Statistical Office)

Interestingly, the sales of petrol and diesel vehicles dropped by 27% and 59% respectively. Hybrid vehicles remained somewhat stable. But electric vehicles made a big jump last year in Switzerland — and the lion’s share of the credit goes to Tesla.

Keep in mind, Tesla’s Model Y was only spotted getting shipped in Switzerland via trains in November 2021, so it did not even make it to the above top chart. Its presence, theoretically, should make a significant impact in 2022.

Tesla’s Model Y (Source: EVClicks.co.uk / CC BY-SA)

Note that Tesla has made this historic achievement in Switzerland even though its European Gigafactory hasn’t begun production yet. Once Giga Berlin is functional this year, the Model Y sales graph will (likely) reach the top position very fast.

An earlier version of this article was originally published by Tesla Oracle. Revised update edited by EVANNEX.