E-Paper
One year on, Chandigarh admn to review Electric Vehicle policy
The meeting of Chandigarh administration to review the Electric Vehicle policy will be held in the second week of October
Under criticism for pushing adoption of electric vehicles aggressively despite not ensuring adequate public infrastructure, the UT administration will be reviewing its Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy, which was rolled out in September last year.
The review meeting will be held in the second week of October.
Under the policy, UT plans to gradually stop registering fuel-run vehicles to dissuade people from buying vehicles that cause pollution.
This year, the administration plans to cease registration of non-electric two-wheelers in October and even non-electric four-wheelers by December, as the number of such vehicles permitted in 2023, as per the EV policy, is expected to be met by then.
According to the policy target, only 12,076 two-wheelers and 15,465 four-wheelers with internal combustion engines (ICE) are to be registered in the city till December this year. After the target is met, their registration will be stopped and only electric vehicles will be registered.
However, when it comes to public charging infrastructure, a key enabler for large-scale EV adoption, not a single charging station in the city is currently functional. Besides, the Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST) has yet to launch the mobile app that would provide real-time information about charging stations, time slots, load, location and tariff.
According to a senior officer of CREST, the executing agency for city’s renewable energy projects, as per a clause in the policy, it needs to be reviewed after completing one year: “The cap on registration of non-electric vehicles will be re-examined.”
The officer further added that apart from deciding on continuation of incentives being provided on purchase of new EVs, flaws and strengths of the policy will also be thoroughly deliberated upon and decisions will be taken accordingly.
UT’s EV policy is aimed at making Chandigarh a “Model EV City” by achieving one of the highest penetrations of zero-emission vehicles within the policy period of five years.
According to RLA records, despite UT’s vigorous push, only 5% EV registrations have been recorded in the city in the past year.
Between September 20, 2022, and September 18, 2023, a total of 52,412 vehicles were registered in Chandigarh, of which only 2,599 were electric.
The count of two-wheeler registrations stood at 21,400, of which 1,807 were electric, while of the total 27,387 four-wheelers registered, 752 were electric.
September saw the lowest number of electric two-wheeler registrations at 23, while last year, 26 were logged in the same month.
Ram Kumar Garg, finance secretary of the Federation of Automobile Dealers’ Association, Chandigarh, criticised UT’s decision to halt registrations despite not having public charging infrastructure in place. Worse, the move will affect automobile businesses established over five decades, said Garg, while noting that such caps on fuel-run vehicles were unprecedented in the country.
While public charging infrastructure is far from satisfactory, to promote EVs, the administration has waived registration fee and road tax for five years, while owners of vehicles running on conventional fuels have to pay both.
Also an incentive ranging from ₹3,000 to ₹2 lakh is being offered for up to 42,000 vehicles of different categories, including 25,000 e-cycles, 10,000 e-bikes and 3,000 e-cars, purchased between September 20, 2022, and September 19, 2027.
The incentive is available for EVs bought anywhere across the country, but only permanent residents of Chandigarh are eligible for it.
