What is the difference between make, type, variant and version?

The make is the manufacturer or brand designation (e.g. “VW”, “BMW”). It appears in a dedicated field of the registration document.

The type is, under Art. 2 of the Type Approval Ordinance (TGV, SR 741.511), “the model on which the approval of series-produced vehicles is based …; a type may be subdivided into variants and versions.” Make and type appear in dedicated fields of the registration document, variant and version in the associated type approval data.

• Make: manufacturer / brand designation.
• Type: the model on which the approval of a vehicle series is based.
• Variant: technical subgroup of a type.
• Version: further sublevel within a variant (e.g. equipment or emission characteristics).

In the EU framework, the “vehicle type” is defined in Art. 3 of Regulation (EU) 2018/858 as a group of vehicles with common characteristics — including the variants and versions covered by it. The Swiss and EU systems are congruent on this point.

The make–type–variant–version hierarchy must be distinguished from the vehicle-class classification (M1, N1, L3e …): the latter is a separate categorisation of the vehicle kind, not a subdivision of the model.