Private Share of Electric Vehicles: How the Swiss Are Shooting Themselves in the Foot

Sinn des Privatanteils

Anyone who uses a company car privately has a private share added to their salary as a monetary benefit. This is intended to proportionately cover amortization and, above all, maintenance costs. However, these costs tend to be nearly zero for electric cars because an electric car has almost no wear parts. This also leads to a lifespan of E-vehicles that is 5–10 times longer. When you add it all up, the long-term costs are less than 25% of those for a combustion vehicle.

Germany does everything right

The Germans have recognized this and have consequently reduced the private share rate for electric cars to a quarter. Now, only 0.25% instead of 1.0% of the new price is added to the salary as a cash benefit. This is a good, fair solution – and the fact that it increases to 0.5% for cars with a new price of over 60,000 euros may not be entirely fair, but a jealousy progression is probably unavoidable today.

And Switzerland totally messes it up

And what do the Swiss do? Just nothing. Because, if you apply the current regulation (0.8% per month regardless of the type of drive) to any electric car, the employee pays a private share that is around 75% too high compared to a combustion vehicle. So, the electric car driver is currently charged a gasoline equivalent of an estimated over 3% per month, which is undoubtedly unfair and probably not intended.

To illustrate: If you extrapolate this to a realistic usage period of ten years for an electric car, the employee would theoretically pay taxes and social security on 380 (!) percent of the purchase price. That is absurd.

The sluggish Swiss authorities let all initiatives fizzle out; the pioneering German solution is not even acknowledged. As a result, Switzerland actively ensures that drivers of electric company cars are not only not promoted – on the contrary, they are actively punished.

Such a regulation is a disgrace for a civilized country. And the Swiss are shooting themselves in the foot, since with such an injustice many companies and employees will think twice about switching to a climate-friendly car and being ripped off by their own state as thanks for their visionary step.