BYD registered 835 new cars in Switzerland and Liechtenstein in October 2026, almost seven times Tesla's 124. That cut BYD's gap to Tesla over the year to 38 cars: from January to October BYD has 5,403 registrations and Tesla 5,441, according to auto-schweiz's brand table. At the end of September, Tesla had been 749 ahead.
auto-schweiz, the association of Switzerland's official car importers, published the figures on 2 November with its monthly release. Its brand table counts every powertrain, so BYD's total includes its plug-in hybrids. Tesla sells only electric cars.
October in numbers
| October 2026 | October 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| New passenger cars | 18,986 | 18,451 |
| Battery-electric | 6,620 (34.9%) | 4,175 (22.6%) |
| Petrol | 2,940 (15.5%) | 4,305 (23.3%) |
| Tesla | 124 | 128 |
| BYD | 835 | 141 |
Battery-electric cars took 34.9% of the market, up from 22.6% a year earlier. It is the second month above a third, after September's 35.7%, the first time Switzerland had crossed that line. The market as a whole grew 2.9%. From January to October, 52,084 battery-electric cars were registered, 30.5% more than a year earlier, for a 27.1% share.
A quiet month for Tesla
October is the first month of a quarter, when Tesla delivers few cars in Europe. Its 124 registrations were 3.1% fewer than a year earlier and gave it a 0.7% share. Over ten months it is still up 17.4%. The release has no model figures; in September the Model Y alone registered 1,679.
BYD, by contrast, was the seventh-largest brand of the month:
| Brand | October 2026 | October 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Škoda | 1,965 | 2,057 | −4.5% |
| Volkswagen | 1,829 | 2,054 | −11.0% |
| BMW | 1,526 | 1,593 | −4.2% |
| Mercedes-Benz | 1,438 | 1,441 | −0.2% |
| Audi | 1,221 | 1,484 | −17.7% |
| Toyota | 1,117 | 915 | +22.1% |
| BYD | 835 | 141 | +492.2% |
| Tesla | 124 | 128 | −3.1% |
Together with Leapmotor (377), Zeekr (155) and Xpeng (110), BYD took 1,477 registrations, 7.8% of the market. A year earlier the same four brands registered 280.
The importers' complaint
auto-schweiz called the year's result sobering. Switzerland registered 192,523 new cars in ten months, only 2.7% more than in a very weak 2025, while the EU market grew 5.7% in the first nine months. The association blames regulation: the EU has eased its CO₂ rules for carmakers, but Switzerland has not followed, so importers still face fixed annual targets and the risk of penalties. Its director, Thomas Rücker, said it was "incomprehensible" that Switzerland was keeping "excessively strict CO₂ regulation" while the EU relieved its industry.
What it means for buyers
Switzerland has no federal purchase subsidy for electric cars, so its buyers choose on price and running costs alone. On that basis, BYD has gone from 141 Swiss registrations a year ago to 835. With November and December left, and December the last month of Tesla's quarter, the order between the two for 2026 is still open.