Road vehicles - Stock, level of motorisation

---

Stock of vehicles

Between 2000 and 2021, the road vehicle stock (excluding mopeds) increased by 38% to 6.3 million. Passenger cars accounted for around three quarters of this stock; for some time there has been a trend towards hybrid and electric vehicles. In 2021, 70 200 all-electric vehicles were registered, representing 1.5% of all passenger cars.  

A considerable increase has also been seen among motorcycles and light goods vehicles: their stocks have risen by 60% and 79% respectively since 2000.

In 2015, 65% of all households owned at least one bicycle. 7% of households had an e-bike.

their stocks have risen by 56% and 74% respectively since 2000.

Road motor vehicles in Switzerland

	2000	2020	2021p
Total stock (without mopeds)	4 584 718	6 241 141	6 312 055
Passenger cars	3 545 247	4 658 335	4 688 235
of which petrol-driven	3 402 309	3 087 390	3 046 645
of which diesel-driven	141 863	1 379 077	1 355 901
of which conventional hybrid vehicles1	0	109 920	158 121
of which plug-in hybrid vehicles1	0	23 788	43 223
of which all-electric vehicles	754	43 396	70 223
average age of passenger cars (years)	6.9	9.0	9,3
Passenger transport vehicles	40 260	88 293	97 255
of which camper vans	22 518	71 213	79 899
Goods transport vehicles	278 518	452 186	464 150
of which light vehicles (up to 3.5 t)	229 339	399 934	411 642
of which heavy vehicles (more than 3.5 t)	49 179	52 252	52 508
Agricultural vehicles	177 963	195 082	196 315
Industrial vehicles	48 949	75 659	77 300
Motorcycles	493 781	771 586	788 800
Mopeds including fast E-bikes2	218 932	228 811	...

p provisional data
Note: stock as of 30 September, except mopeds (usually stock as of 31 December)
1) Petrol-electric, diesel-electric
2) All e-bikes requiring a moped registration plate Sources: FSO – Moped survey, conducted by the cantons; FSO, FEDRO – Stock of road vehicles (MFZ)

Top of page

---

Level of motorisation

In 2020, there were an average of 541 passenger cars per 1000 inhabitants in Switzerland, with considerable regional differences: Particularly in urban agglomerations with a dense public transport network, the level of motorisation was considerably below the Swiss average.

Top of page

---

Public road transport vehicles

Almost 7300 public road transport vehicles were registered in 2020. Four fifths of these vehicles were buses. Their stock has risen by 40% since 2000. In parallel, the stock of trams has decreased by 1%, whereas the number of trolley buses has fallen by 17%.

Public transport vehicles

	2000	2010	2020
Total stock	5 668	6 258	7 277
Tramways	741	781	731
Trolley buses	646	606	536
Buses	4 281	4 871	6 010

Source: FSO – Public transport statistics (TP)

You can find more detailed information on public road vehicle stock in the:

• Cross sectional topic public transport

Top of page

---

Further information

Tables

Data

Press releases

All press releases on the topic Road vehicles - Stock, Level of motorisation

Links

Related topics

• Possession de véhicules, de permis et d'abonnements des TP (in French and German)
  

Statistical concepts

Definitions