Traffic January cold brings car batteries to a standstill
The extreme cold in January caused many car batteries to fail. The breakdown service of the Touring Club Switzerland had to double its call-outs. In 80 percent of cases, cars were able to continue their journey afterwards.
12.01.2026, 10:08
SDA
On average, the Swiss Touring Club (TCS) announced on Monday that the breakdown service carries out around 1000 call-outs per day. On Monday, January 5 alone, 2232 breakdown calls were recorded. On the following day, the breakdown service was called out 1884 times. In almost 60 percent of cases, it was due to the starter batteries failing because of the cold.
In total, TCS provided assistance 368,000 times last year. Problems with the starter battery - in both fuel-powered and electric cars - were by far the most common cause of breakdowns. Last year, a good third of call-outs were caused in this way, according to the TCS. The second most frequent cause of breakdowns was damage to tires.
