Petrol 2-wheeler registration halted in Chandigarh

Tribune News Service

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Chandigarh, October 6

In a big blow to two-wheeler buyers ahead of the festive season, the Registering and Licencing Authority (RLA) has stopped the registration of two-wheelers running on internal combustion engine (ICE) on achieving the target fixed for 2023 in the revised Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy.

Petrol 2-wheeler dealers 10

Total employees 1,000

Value of current stock Rs 15-16 cr

• Dealers' federation requests Purohit to take a merciful view

According to the target, only 12,076 two-wheelers running on petrol have to be registered in the city till March 31 next year. However, the target was achieved around 3 pm today and after that, their registration was stopped. Now, only electric two-wheelers will be registered in the city, said an official.

Similarly, the RLA will stop the registration of four-wheelers running on internal combustion engine (ICE) (petrol/diesel) once the target is achieved, which is likely by next month. According to the target, only 15,465 four-wheelers running on the ICE are to be registered by March 31, 2024. As many as 13,776 four-wheelers have been registered to date in the city. In such a situation, only 1,689 non-electric four-wheelers can be registered as of now.

The UT Administration rolled out the EV Policy on September 20, 2022.

On achieving the target, the UT Administration had also stopped the registration of non-electric two-wheelers from February 10 to March 31 for the 2022-23 financial year.

According to the data available from September 20, 2022, till September 18 this year, a total of 19,592 non-electric two-wheelers were registered against 1,807 electric two-wheelers. Similarly, 26,372 non-electric four-wheelers were registered against 752 electric and 263 strong hybrid vehicles during the period.

After criticism from stakeholders, the UT Administration had revised its Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy in the first week of July and reduced the registration target for electric two-wheelers. The target had been reduced to 35 per cent from the previous 70 per cent to be achieved in 2023-24.

The Electric Vehicle Policy-2022 was approved to make Chandigarh a “Model EV City” by achieving one of the highest penetrations of zero-emission vehicles within the policy period of five years. The policy is aimed at mitigating the environmental impact caused by conventional vehicles and establishing Chandigarh as a leading “Electric Vehicle City”.

In a communication, the Federation of the Automobile Dealers’ Association of Chandigarh requested UT Administrator Banwarilal Purohit to adopt a merciful view towards the needs and aspirations of potential customers of fuel-powered vehicles, dealers, their employees and families.

Ram Kumar Garg, finance secretary of the federation, said the halting of registration of non-electric two-wheelers would not only cause great loss to the automobile dealers in Chandigarh, but also lead to commensurate loss to the state exchequer.

He said the decision should be left to customers as whether to go for fuel-powered vehicles or costlier electric ones.

He said public charging stations were still not ready and customers residing in apartments do not have any easy option of charging their vehicles in a secured area. Also, nowhere in the country, there is an EV Policy that is aimed at promoting the sale of EVs by putting a ban on the sale of fuel-powered vehicles.

He further said the average cost of an ICE scooter was nearly Rs 80,000 lakh, whereas an electric one costs nearly Rs 1.25 lakh. Nearly 14 lakh petrol two-wheelers were manufactured in the country every month in comparison to 1 lakh electric ones.

Charging stations non-functional

Even after installing charging stations for electric vehicles in November last year, these are yet to be made operational in the city. The UT had installed 23 charging stations at nine locations across the city in November last year. These stations will have a total of 92 charging guns, through which an equal number of vehicles can be charged simultaneously.

Navratra bookings

A dealer of Enfield motorcycles said they had a stock of nearly 200 motorcycles and advance booking of nearly 160-170 motorcycles just for Navratra festival. Nearly 700-800 non-electric two-wheelers are booked for Navratras, he added.

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