Electric Vehicle Policy: Chandigarh Administration may halt registration of petrol two-wheelers from July

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Chandigarh, May 26

Non-electric two-wheelers may be hitting the end of the road in the city with registration of these vehicles likely to be stopped from July this year, as the UT Transport Department is on course to achieving the annual target fixed in its Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy by June-end.

According to the EV policy, the registration of two-wheelers running on internal combustion engine (ICE) may be stopped after June. Even if someone buys a two-wheeler, it will not be registered, since under the policy, the target for 2023-24 fiscal is likely to be achieved by the end of June. After this, only electric two-wheelers will be registered in the city. Under the policy, there is no provision for further registration of ICE two-wheeler vehicles from the next fiscal.

According to the target for the 2023-24 fiscal, nearly 6,200 petrol two-wheelers can be registered in the city. After this, their registration will be stopped and only electric two-wheelers will be registered.

In one-and-a-half months of this financial year, as many as 3,700 two-wheelers have already been registered. In such a situation, only around 2,500 non-electric two-wheelers can be registered now.

This has created anxiety among two-wheeler dealers in the city. They have been urging the administration to allow registration of non-electric two-wheelers even after the target for this fiscal is achieved. A dealer says people are still not fully convinced about EVs. Of the 21,000 two-wheelers sold last year, nearly 19,500 were non-electric two-wheelers and only 1,500 electric, he says.

Instead of stopping registration, people should be encouraged by giving incentives. The sudden closure of registration of petrol two-wheelers will harm dealers and burden people. Some other dealers say not many electric motorcycles are currently being manufactured. Any move to stop registration will hit their businesses.

The EV Policy has been formulated by the Chandigarh Renewable Energy Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST) and notified in September last year. The Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA) has informed the administration that as per the policy targets, they will be able to accommodate only 6,200 petrol two-wheelers and a major part of which has already been achieved.

In a bid to gradually phase out two-wheelers and three-wheelers running on ICE, the administration planned to register a minimum of 35% electric two-wheelers (e-2W) and electric three-wheelers (e-3W) in 2022-23, 70% in 2023-24 and 100% from 2024-25. In 2023-24, the registration of vehicles running on fossil fuel will be stopped after the number of registered vehicles reaches 30% and it will be calculated on the basis of the total number of vehicles registered during the previous year.

Registration of petrol two-wheelers was closed for 50 days in the last financial year. According to the policy, the target of registering petrol two-wheelers for 2022-23 was 65%. The target was met by February 10, after which the administration issued an order banning the registration of petrol two-wheelers in the city till April 1. After this, the dealers went to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, but they did not get relief.

3,700 registrations completed already

• As per EV Policy, 6,200 petrol two-wheelers can be registered in UT in 2023-24 fiscal; 3,700 have already been registered so far
• Remaining 2,500 two-wheelers are likely to be registered by June-end; only electric two-wheelers will be registered thereafter
• Under policy, there is no provision for further registration of two-wheelers running on internal combustion engine from next fiscal
• Registration of petrol two-wheelers was closed for 50 days last fiscal after target of registering these for 2022-23 was achieved

18 dealers in city

There are as many as 18 two-wheeler dealers in UT and dozens of sub-dealers. These include two dealers each of Royal Enfield, Honda, TVS, Bajaj, Hero and a dealer each of Yamaha, Suzuki, Jawa, Triumph, Kawasaki, Indian, BMW. Around 6,000 families are directly associated with these showrooms and related works.