We thought the latest news from California was impressive—electrified vehicles have reached a 20% share of the market—until we saw the latest stats from Switzerland.

So far in 2021, battery-electric vehicles have captured 9.9% of the market, plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) have reached 8.3%, and hybrids have taken 20.6%. That’s a total of almost 40% of the overall vehicle market, which is almost in the class of EV hotspots such as Norway and the Netherlands.

Switzerland has seen its EV adoption rate soar in the last year or two—the share of pure EVs went from a paltry 1.7% in 2018 to a healthy 14.3% in June 2021. The share of plug-in vehicles (EVs and PHEVs) reached 23% in that month.

The rapid turnaround is all the more amazing in light of the fact that, unlike most Western European countries, Switzerland offers no special incentives for EV purchases (a couple of the Swiss cantons—the equivalent of states or provinces—have incentives, and the federal government has financed some infrastructure projects).

The Tesla Model 3 is by far the most popular EV, followed by the VW ID.3 and Renault Zoe.

According to multilingual media outlet swissinfo, the country had 5,700 public charging points as of March.

A recent survey by the trade group Swiss eMobility found that just over half of Swiss residents surveyed are likely to buy an EV in the next three years.

Source: Swiss eMobility