High-end electric vehicles catch fancy of Chandigarh residents

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Porsche's Taycan Turbo S priced Rs 2.53 crore is the costliest battery-operated light motor vehicle (LMV) registered in the city. So far, six electric high-end LMVs, each worth over Rs 2-crore, and 38 each priced from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore have been registered here.

Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav told The Tribune that Chandigarh had registered 8,469 zero-emission vehicles since 2020 in a rather slow but steady rise in the number of e-vehicles.

“This is evident from the fact that from just 46 e-vehicles, including 35 four-wheelers and 11 two-wheelers, registered here on 2020, the year-to-year registrations went up from 245 in 2021 to 1,006 in 2022, 2,870 in 2023 and 3,078 in 2024. As many as 1,224 battery-operated two and four-wheelers have been registered in Chandigarh till June 30 this year,” Nishant disclosed.

Of the total 8,469 e-vehicles registered from January 1, 2020, to June 30, 2025, as many as 5,442 are two-wheelers and the rest four-wheelers.

With this, the total number of e-vehicles, including three-wheelers, registered in Chandigarh has crossed the 20,000-mark. This was, however, not even 2% (precisely 1.4%) of over 14.27-lakh petrol, diesel and CNG vehicles registered in the Union Territory, which has an estimated population of 13 lakh.

Of the total 3,027 electric four-wheelers registered in the city, the lucky owners of the first 2,000 non-polluting vehicles have been given a subsidy of Rs 1.5-lakh each under the UT’s EV policy.

In September 2022, the UT Administration had announced a subsidy of Rs 1.5-lakh to the buyer of each electric non-transport four-wheeler for personal use under its EV policy to promote the environment-friendly vehicles in Chandigarh.

The policy, which is aimed at making Chandigarh a “model EV city” with one of the highest adoption rate of zero-emission vehicles by 2027, also offered subsidies for other categories of electric vehicles, including e-cycles and e-bikes. Besides, there is a quota of 42,000 vehicles for incentives on a first come, first served basis.

Till now, Chandigarh has disbursed over Rs 35 crore as incentive to the buyers of e-vehicles under different categories, including Rs 30 crore to 2,000 electric four-wheelers under the policy.

The policy entailed incentives ranging between Rs 3,000 and Rs 2 lakh for the first 42,000 e-vehicles of different categories, including 25,000 e-cycles, 10,000 e-bikes, 2,000 e-cars (personal) and e-cars (commercial), purchased from September 20, 2022, to September 19, 2027.

Following the exhaustion of the quota for incentives to electric cars (personal), the new buyers are no longer getting Rs 1.5-lakh subsidy.

In order to attract more adoption of zero-emission vehicles, the UT Administration has already reached out to the Centre, seeking transfer of unused subsidy quota for e-cycles and e-commercial vehicles to the e-cars (personal) for promoting the shift towards zero-emission vehicles in Chandigarh.

However, the Union Government is yet to take a call on the UT’s proposal.

Besides the subsidy on purchase of e-vehicles, the owners of battery-operated vehicles in Chandigarh are offered free parking at paid lots of the Municipal Corporation and waiver of registration fee and road tax for five years.

CAP ON NON-EVs NO MORE

With the aim of gradually phasing out fuel-powered vehicles, the UT Administration has imposed a cap on future registration of non-electric vehicles, including two-wheelers, four-wheelers and commercial vehicles, in its EV policy. However, on November 23, 2023, the then UT Administrator Banwarilal Purohit lifted the cap.

CHANDIGARH TO BECOME FIRST EV CITY BY 2027: DC

“We are following an EV policy which envisions making Chandigarh the first model EV city in India by achieving the highest zero-emission vehicle adoption rates in the country by 2027,” said Nishant Kumar Yadav, Deputy Commissioner.