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German cars remain most popular with Swiss

Malcolm Curtis
Malcolm Curtis - [email protected]
German cars remain most popular with Swiss
Sales of BMW, the second most popular make in Switzerland, rose almost four percent. Photo: Daniel Roland/AFP

Swiss residents bought slightly fewer new passenger cars in 2014, according to data released on Wednesday in a report that showed German brands remain the most popular with motorists in Switzerland.

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A total of 301,942 new models were sold last year, down 1.9 percent from 2103, the independent Swiss automobile trade association (VFAS) reported.

The drop came despite a 9.1 percent surge in new car sales in December (when a record for the month of almost 33,000 new cars were sold) as buyers sought to avoid carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions penalties, which took effect on January 1st.

Volkswagen remained the most popular make, accounting for 40,146 units sold last year, a decline of 1.9 percent, followed by BMW (21,057, up 3.7 percent) and Audi (20,949, down 1.4 percent).

Czech brand Skoda (like Audi, part of the Volkswagen group) took fourth spot with sales of 19,517, up 8.8 percent.

Other makes in the top ten included German made Mercedes (fifth), Opel (sixth) and Ford (seventh), followed by French marques Renault and Peugeot.

Toyota, the leading non-European seller in Switzerland, ranked tenth in the country, which does not have any major domestic automakers.

The growing appeal of four-by-four cars continued in 2014 when 116,186 were sold, up by 4.8 percent to represent 38.5 percent of sales.

The number of diesel-engine cars dipped by two percent to 111,853.

Models with alternative kinds of motors, such as electric and hybrid cars, saw sales rise 5.7 percent to 9,863 units. 

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