Swiss cars are getting bigger – the parking spaces aren’t (2024)

Cars in Switzerland are growing by one or two centimetres a year, with size mattering in particular for drivers in the German-speaking part of the country. What are the consequences?

Longer, wider and higher. Driven by demand for sport utility vehicles (SUVs), vehicles around the world are getting larger. Switzerland is no exception. However, parking space size and roads remain unchanged.

A first study on the topicExternal link, by Swiss public television, RTS, measured changes in the size of passenger cars in Switzerland.

It found that every year new models are 1.2cm longer. Cars in Switzerland have grown by 16cm since 2011.

More problematic is the width: cars get about 1cm wider every two years, or 6cm since 2011. On average, cars are now 4.49m long and 1.84m wide.

What’s behind this transformation? The answer is connected to the success of SUVs, the number of which has exploded. By 2023, SUVs accounted for half of all models sold in Switzerland.

The emergence of electric cars is also boosting these figures. The average new car registered in 2023 was 4.52m long and 1.86m wide. That’s 18cm longer and 5cm wider than petrol engine automobiles.

Which region in Switzerland buys bigger?

Although manufacturers are offering ever-larger models, ultimately it is the consumers who are forking out the cash. The analysis by RTS shows sales of these larger cars vary from region to region. It is particularly marked in German-speaking Switzerland.

Last year, the largest vehicles were bought by individuals registered in canton Zug, followed by canton Schwyz and canton Graubünden. The record is set in the municipality ofEngadine in canton Graubünden, where the average car length is 4.60m and the width 1.87m.

Residents of French-speaking Switzerland and of Italian-speaking Ticino, on the other hand, are opting for smaller vehicles. The six cantons with the smallest cars are all outside German-speaking regions of Switzerland. The only exception is Geneva, which is slightly above the Swiss average.

For example, new car registrations last year in the Jura region are estimated to be 19cm shorter and 5cm narrower than those registered in canton Zug. Residents of the Locarno region in canton Ticino opt for the smallest models, averaging 4.32m long and 1.81m wide.

Does size matter?

It should come as no surprise that canton Zug comes at the top of the “large car” list. It has the highest density of luxury cars, many of which are very large.

According to the RTS analysis, of all the new vehicles on the road in 2023, the largest models are Bentleys and Lamborghinis. These luxury car models have a surface area close to 10.20 square metres, while on the other end of this spectrum, Fiat cars cover just 6.4 square metres.

Though the popular Fiat 500 has grown considerably since its launch in 1957, this iconic car is still around 30cm narrower than a Lamborghini.

Apart from in Zug, these luxury cars are not as common. However, Mercedes-Benz vehicles, the fifth most widely distributed manufacturer in Switzerland last year, are on average 22cm wider and 97cm longer than Fiat models.

The parking battle

The evolution of the vehicle fleet is not without consequences. Parking between two SUVs can be a real challenge. It’s often impossible to fit these large cars in car parks around the country, particularly underground parking spaces, which can’t be expanded.

“We can’t move the support beams,” Johnny Perera, director of the Inovil car parks in Lausanne, told RTS. “The emergence of large vehicles is a real constraint for car parks that were built 50 or 60 years ago.

The only solution is to reduce the number of spaces. “Where there are three spaces, we could put in two. But that would mean customers would have to pay 150% for a parking space, which they are not prepared to do,” Perera said.

Taxing by size

Some major cities are taking steps to deal with the increase in SUVs. Paris is due to introduce a higher parking charge for SUVs in autumn. In Switzerland, several similar projects are under consideration.

In canton Basel City, the cantonal authorities want to include size in the calculation of vehicle tax. “I think it’s fair to make people who buy cars that damage society pay more,” explains Raphael Fuhrer, the Green Party parliamentarian behind this proposal. “Air pollution and land use are external costs. They should be paid for by those who purchase and drive these cars.”

For the automobile lobby, size should not be a determining factor. Nicolas Leuba, president of the Vaud section of the Swiss Automobile Association, defends all vehicles, from the smallest to the largest.

“Individuals buy a vehicle according to need. You may need a small electric car to go into the city, a slightly bigger car for the weekend, an estate car for business people and an SUV for farmers. And that would be justified. There should be no penalty policies,” he insists.

A fleet the size of canton Basel City

In parliament, several motions and postulates have been tabled in recent years against the widespread use of SUVs.

In March, the latest of these, from Zurich Green Party parliamentarian Marionna Schlatter, called on the government to “take measures to curb the trend towards ever larger, heavier and more powerful cars”.

In Schlatter’s view, in addition to excessive CO2 emissions, SUVs also represent “a greater danger to the occupants of smaller vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists”. The government, which has yet to respond, has rejected similar proposals in the past.

While it is becoming increasingly difficult to park or overtake larger cars, this has not discouraged Swiss drivers from purchasing these vehicles. These models continue to grow in size and number, taking up more public space. The total surface area of vehicles has jumped by 24% since 2011. Put side by side, the country’s 4.8 million passenger cars would cover just over 37km2: an area the size of canton Basel City.

Adapted from French by DeepL/amva

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