The Swiss new car market showed signs of consolidation after years of growth with sales down by around -6.2% in 2013, according to data from Auto Suisse,

the Swiss automotive trade organisation, which shows that new car sales fell to 307,885 in 2013, from 328,139 in 2012. Volkswagen is the clear market leader with the rest of the German brands – Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, arguing over slots two to four in the sales league.

Skoda continues to grow in the country and the Octavia is now the second best selling car after the Volkswagen Golf, and Skoda has been competing with Mercedes as the fourth largest carmaker by sales.

The Swiss market is relatively unusual in Europe, in that it has a strong petrol engine bias, with a high penetration of four-wheel drive and SUV models with automatic transmission. Generally cars are very highly specified and combined with the petrol/automatic transmission combination makes Swiss cars less desirable for export to other countries.

Higher-powered petrol automatics inevitably mean higher average CO2 emissions, which the market will have to address over the coming years to meet 2015 EU emission targets. Some experts are predicting a major move to EVs over the next couple of years.

Not only will this reduce average country CO2 emissions but the high level of electricity generated from hydroelectric sources will mean a lower well-to-wheel ratio, which should appeal to corporates and green political parties.

This would be an interesting change to the new car market, and would also start to alter the dynamics of the used car business as more and more EVs reach the second hand market.

Unlike the majority of European countries, the import and export of used cars is relatively infrequent, with only some of the highly specified premium cars being offered for sale outside the country.

Generally Swiss buyers prefer to purchase cars registered in Switzerland so all used car imports – except for the more exotic cars – are worth far less than the equivalent Swiss cars.

The Swiss are also a conservative race and generally avoid the more vibrant lifestyle colours seen in other European markets.

Overall Switzerland has a new and used market that works in isolation when compared with others in Europe, partly because of its tax system and its penchant for high-powered petrol cars.