PUNE Rising petrol and diesel prices is pushing up the Electronic Vehicle’s (EV) growing share as vehicle registration on Gudi Padwa, considered the auspicious day for purchasing new things, saw registrations of more electronic motorcycles as compared to fuel-run bikes.
As per data from Regional Transport Office (RTO), Pune, as many as 1,568 electronic motorcycles were registered on April 1 and 2 while 10,268 conventional fuel-run bikes were registered with RTO in these two days. This made EV’s share more than 15% of overall registrations, a three-fold rise as compared to previous year’s Gudi Padwa.
The prices of petrol during the past ten days have been hiked by over ₹5 per litre, while diesel prices have seen rise of ₹4.78 In a fresh hike on March 29, price of petrol in Pune was hiked by 84 paise. Diesel rate went up by 75 paise. This was the seventh hike within the last ten days.
“The demand for electronic vehicles (EVs) has increased as we can see in the last two days and 1.568 e-motorcycles have been registered. With fuel prices going up, many people are preferring e-bikes above fuel bikes. College going students, parents are showing a liking towards EV’s,” said Sanjeev Bhor, deputy regional transport officer, Pune.
From April 2021 to April 2022, the sale of EVs has crossed the 1,000 mark four times, that is in October, December 2021 and in February, March, April 2022.
“After the petrol prices rose, our sales were doubled. The demand is higher than the manufacturing capacity, although we always running against order,” said Sunil Chacko, the owner of Joy e-bike whose showroom is based in Kothrud.
ACE EV – Ampere (Greaves) Electric Vehicles spokesperson said, “The inquiries have gone up as we have noticed more bookings and it is expected to increase. In the last two years, colleges were shut. Now, with the reopening of everything, we are expecting a positive impact on EV sales.”
In 2018-19, 531 electronic vehicles were registered, in 2019-20, 873 vehicles were registered and in 2020-21, 1,823 vehicles were registered.
“The overall vehicle registration has increased on the auspicious occasion of the Gudi Padwa. In previous two years, the muhurat of Gudi Padwa fell between Covid waves, but now the situation is normal, so people have shown interest in purchase of vehicles,” added Bhor.
In March 2020, Gudi Padwa was on March 25, when the country was under strict lockdown and in 2021, Padwa was on April 13 during the second wave.
“If we look at the trend, the registration of vehicles will increase in 2022 after a lull two years,” added Bhor .
