Findings

Proportion of electric cars in Swiss districts from 2015 to 2021

This map shows that generally between 2015 and 2021 there has been an almost exponential growth of electric cars throughout Switzerland. However, there are both geographical and temporal differences. Some districts show significantly higher growth than others. For example, Zug, or the districts around Lake Zurich show higher growth rates than those in the Alpine belt. At the same time, the growth over these seven years is not gradual. It can be seen that especially in the last two years there has been a sharp increase in this proportion, probably due to the green wave of 2019. All districts follow this trend, although some of them to a lesser extent. For example Visp in the canton of Valais: in 2015 it had the highest proportion of electric cars of all Swiss districts at 0.88%. However, in the following years growth was minimal and only in the last two years has its proportion risen to 1.90%. Looking at other districts, however, it can be seen that the proportion has increased much more. For example, Lausanne, from 0.15% in 2015 to 2.17% in 2021, or Zug, from 0.19% to 2.57%.

Relationship between proportion of electric cars and mean net income in Swiss districts

The highest income areas are located in major urban centers such as Zurich, Basel, Geneva and Zug. The Central Plateau is characterized by a medium-high income, as well as southern Ticino. In the Alpine belt the mean income decreases reaching the lowest values especially in the Valais and Graubünden. Analyzing the graph, a positive correlation can be recognized, according to which districts with higher mean income tend to have a higher proportion of electric cars. There is a statistically significant linear relationship between the proportion of electric cars and the mean income, which confirms our hypothesis. Interestingly, there are districts in the Valais that do not follow this trend at all, in fact they show the opposite behavior. Indeed, the districts of Visp, Goms and Raron have some of the lowest average incomes in Switzerland, but they have some of the highest percentages of electric cars.

Relationship between proportion of electric cars and political orientation in Swiss districts

In this case, along the Alps are located the districts with a lower percentage of votes for the major left/green parties, while in the Central Plateau the proportion increases even up to over 50% around the major urban centers. From the interactive graph it can be noticed that on average, districts with a higher modeled “greeness” tend to have a higher proportion of electric cars. Also in this case we have a statistically significant linear relationship that supports our third hypothesis. Again, the three districts Visp, Goms and Raron show an inverted trend having a high proportion of electric cars coupled with a low proportion of votes for the left/green parties.

Relationship between proportion of electric cars and urban/rural district typology in Swiss districts

From this map, it can be seen that most of the Swiss area is categorized as rural, urban centers are clearly urban, and suburban areas around major urban centers are considered as intermediate. By taking the graph into account, we can see that, on average,rural districts have the lowest proportion of electric cars, while urban districts have the highest proportion. We can therefore say that the greater the degree of urbanity, the greater the percentage of electric cars. Through an Anova test, we were able to confirm that these groups are not caused by chance, but there is a statistically significant relationship between proportion of electric cars and district typology. Once again, several districts, including those already mentioned, show a reverse trend.

Conclusion and further research

Through the interactive web map applications and the statistical tests we were able to confirm our hypothesis that income, political orientation and type of district play a significant role in the decision of purchasing an electric car. The difference in the trend of the three districts Visp, Goms and Raron could be explained by other factors that we have not taken into account, or due to the fact that there might be policies that are particularly favorable to the purchase of electric cars, for example through good subsidies. However, it is interesting to note that over the years the rate of increase in the proportion has not always been particularly high (like Visp), as for example in other districts such as Zug. Further studies focused on these districts would be interesting to understand what factors may have been influential in achieving such a high proportion of electric cars in years when in other districts the proportion was much lower. In the coming years, a continuous monitoring of the situation would allow it to understand whether this trend of almost exponential increase will strengthen. In addition, in a further analysis it would be interesting to look more closely at the issues that influence the purchase of electric vehicles, especially from a political-economic point of view, such as the subsidies issued by the various cantons for the purchase of an electric vehicle and the reductions in road tax. An analysis of how these subsidies influence the share of electric cars could help to better understand the spatial distribution of electric cars in Switzerland. At the same time it allows policy makers to adapt their strategies to reach environmental goals faster. Last but not least, it would be appropriate to have the income data updated to 2021 and compare it with the latest available data on electric cars. This would better represent the current situation.