Chandigarh has registered 11,254 non-electric two-wheelers since April, leaving only 822 more that can be registered.
Chandigarh to halt non-electric two-wheeler registrations in early October and four-wheeler registrations in December, as the city is expected to reach its quota of non-electric vehicles for 2023 under its Electric Vehicle (EV) policy.
Chandigarh's EV Policy, launched in September 2022, aims to gradually phase out fuel-run vehicles over five years to discourage people from buying polluting vehicles.
Only 12,076 two-wheelers with internal combustion engines (ICE) can be registered in Chandigarh until December, after which only electric two-wheelers will be allowed, according to Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA) Pradhuman Singh. Since April, Chandigarh has registered 11,254 non-electric two-wheelers, leaving a quota of 822 more.
Chandigarh will stop registering new ICE four-wheelers when their number reaches 15,465, which is expected to happen by December. So far this year, the city has registered 12,937 ICE four-wheelers, leaving a quota of 2,528 more.
Chandigarh initially set a target of 6,202 for non-electric two-wheeler registrations in 2023 but relaxed it to 12,076 after facing criticism for the stringent cap.
Chandigarh initially planned to register 70% electric and 30% conventional two-wheelers in 2023 but later relaxed the target to 35% electric and 70% conventional.
"The Chandigarh administration's decision to cap fuel-run vehicle registrations will shut down our businesses, which we've built over the past five decades," said Ram Kumar Garg, finance secretary of the Federation of Automobile Dealers' Association, Chandigarh.
Chandigarh's EV policy aims to make the city a "Model EV City" with one of the highest penetrations of zero-emission vehicles within five years.