On 1 July, a new bonus malus system was introduced for newly registered passenger cars, light lorries and light buses. The aim is to increase the number of environmentally adapted vehicles and achieve the goal of a fossil-free fleet. Environmentally adapted vehicles, called “klimatbonusbilar” (climate bonus cars) in Swedish, with no or very low carbon dioxide emissions of up to 60 g/km, are awarded a bonus of up to SEK 60 000. Cars that can be powered by gas (not including LPG) receive a fixed bonus sum of SEK 10 000, regardless of their carbon dioxide emissions. Malus entails an increased vehicle tax for the first three years on petrol and diesel vehicles.

Passenger cars defined as a “klimatbonusbil” accounted for 11 percent of newly registered passenger cars in August.

The higher vehicle taxes on newly registered diesel cars introduced by the bonus malus system led to a large number of car registrations ahead of 1 July. As a result, new registrations of such passenger cars fell by 47 percent in August, compared with the same month last year.

Among newly registered cars, 24 880 were of the 2016–2018 model years, and 885 were older models. During the month, 27 134 passenger cars were deregistered, leading to a reduction in the total passenger car fleet of 1 369 vehicles.

Sixty-seven percent of cars were registered by businesses and organisations, of which businesses in the car retail trade accounted for 34 percent of total new registrations. Among cars registered by private persons, men accounted for 63 percent and women accounted for 37 percent of registrations.

The bonus malus system includes light but not heavy lorries, which is apparent from the number of newly registered lorries. In August, 2 535 lorries were newly registered, down 51.0 percent compared with the same month last year. Among newly registered lorries, 1 931 were light lorries with a weight up to 3.5 tonnes, which is a decrease of 57.8 percent, and 604 were heavy lorries with a weight over 3.5 tonnes, which is an increase of 0.7 percent compared with August 2017.

New registrations between January and August 2018

So far this year, new registrations of passenger cars increased by 5.2 percent compared with the same period last year. A total of 106 452 diesel cars have been registered so far this year, a decrease of 18.4 percent compared with the same period last year.

Passenger cars that can be powered by electricity (including hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid), ethanol or gas accounted for 13.3 percent of new registrations this year, compared with 10.0 percent in the same period last year.

Databases containing information for passenger cars on the county/municipality level and fuel for the years 2006–2018 are available in the Statistical database.

Statistical Database

Transport Analysis is the government agency responsible for these statistics, and Statistics Sweden produces the statistics on its behalf. For detailed information on new registrations, please see ‘Monthly vehicle statistics’, which is available on the Transport Analysis website:

Transport Analysis

or on Statistics Sweden’s website:

Statistics Sweden-Registered vehicles

New registrations comprise all vehicles that were entered into the register during the month. These registrations differ from new registrations in BIL Sweden’s reports. BIL Sweden's data only contains data on cars of the latest three model years and cars that are not directly imported.

Key Facts about Transport Analysis

Transport Analysis is the government agency that analyses and evaluates Swedish transport policy and is responsible for official statistics in the field of transport. Transport Analysis also produces background data for transport policy decision-makers and promotes socioeconomically efficient and long-term sustainable transport services provision throughout Sweden.

Statistical news on new registrations in September will be published on 2 October 2018 at 09:30