Appeal to Banwarilal Purohit: Ban upsets dealers, buyers; Chandigarh likely to review EV policy

Chandigarh, October 30

Facing challenges in switching over to electric vehicles (EVs), the UT Administration is likely to review its EV policy again within a few days.

The Administration yesterday stopped the registration of two-wheelers running on internal combustion engine (ICE) on reaching the target of 1,609 such vehicles fixed for 2023-24 in the revised EV policy. It is the third time in the calendar year and second time this financial year when the registration of non-electric two-wheelers was stopped.

Members of the Federation of Automobile Dealers’ Association have sought an appointment with UT Administrator Banwarilal Purohit to demand the removal of cap on the registration of fuel two-wheelers.

An official said the Administration was mulling a review of the policy in a couple of days in view of the festival season. The city has 10 automobile dealers who collectively sell around 20,000 non-electric two-wheelers annually, nearly 1,600 each month. During the festival season, this number can surge to around 4,000 a month.

The UT Administration had earlier revised its EV policy on October 18, reducing the registration target for electric two-wheelers to 15 per cent for 2023-24, down from 25 per cent. With this revision, additional 1,609 non-electric two-wheelers could be registered till March 31 next year. The registration target for personal electric cars was also lowered to 12 per cent from the previous 25 per cent. Also, the quota for registration of four-wheelers was extended to nearly 17,000 against the earlier target fixed for 15,465 for the financial year.

The Registration and Licensing Authority (RLA) had stopped the registration of fuel two-wheelers on achieving the target fixed for 2023-24 on October 6. At that time, only 12,076 two-wheelers running on petrol had to be registered in the city till March 31 next year.