The new segment, hybrids, has also shown increased registrations in the last two years. Noted for the highest per capita vehicle ownership in the country, Chandigarh saw vehicle registration drop by nearly 13% in 2024 compared to 2023. The sharpest decline was in the registration of cars during this period.
There is also a noticeable shift from internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric and hybrid vehicles in the last three years. In absolute numbers, petrol vehicles still dominate the city roads, but there is consistent negative growth in their registration numbers over the last three years.
At the same time, the number of electric vehicles (EVs) still has a very small footprint in the city, but their growth rate has been consistently positive over the last three years. This is particularly the case with e-car registrations.
After the Covid period, there was a staggering increase in vehicle registration growth in the city. Registrations increased by nearly 32% in 2022 compared to 2021. The growth was marginal in the next year, 2023, at 4.58%. However, in 2024, vehicle registrations dropped by 12.92%.
The decline in registration is primarily fuelled by the drop in car registrations. In 2022, 25,675 cars were registered. This increased to 26,738 in 2023 but sharply declined to 19,977 in 2024.
Meanwhile, the registration of two-wheelers has been stable. In 2022, it was 21,992; the next year, the two-wheeler registration number stood at 21,758, and in 2024, there were 21,582 two-wheeler registrations.
The sharpest decline was witnessed in the growth of diesel registration numbers. Between 2022 and 2024, diesel registration dropped by nearly 41% and petrol by nearly 20%.
In absolute numbers, the number of EVs registered remains far behind petrol vehicles, but EVs registered a growth of 127% between 2022 and 2024. Among different vehicle types, e-car registrations increased from 269 in 2022 to 1,393 in 2024.
The new segment, hybrids, has also shown increased registrations in the last two years. In 2022, 1,541 hybrids were registered, which increased to 3,829 in 2023. There was a marginal decline to 3,443 registrations in 2024.
To promote the purchase of EVs, the administration in February 2023 shut down the registration of ICE two-wheelers. Then in July 2023, it revised the caps under pressure from different stakeholders.
The administration then shut down the ICE two-wheeler registrations on October 29, 2023. Earlier, the registrations were stopped on October 6, 2023. However, the administration relaxed the caps on October 18, 2023, which also eventually got exhausted on October 29, 2023.
The EV policy has courted controversy since its notification in September 2022 on the issue of ICE vehicle registration caps. The administration on November 23, 2023, removed registration caps on ICE vehicles under the EV Policy.
