Despite the prices of normal and power petrol shooting to Rs120 and Rs124 per litre, respectively, in May this year, Punekars preferred to purchase petrol over CNG, diesel and electric vehicles in both the four-wheeler and two-wheeler categories from January 1 to August 25, 2022, as per the data of the Pune RTO region.
As per the RTO data, the sale of petrol cars this year is nearly double that of CNG cars with as many as 21,285 petrol cars being sold against 10,274 CNG-; 7,574 diesel; and 1,164 electric cars. Whereas, 78,591 petrol bikes have been sold against 11,681 electric bikes this year in the Pune RTO region. Deputy regional transport officer Sanjeev Bhor said, “There was good sale of all types of vehicles this year as the number of vehicles registered is quite high till August as per our data. And there is not much impact seen in the registration of petrol cars as compared to CNG cars in this period as we have registered a total of 21,285 petrol cars and 10,274 CNG cars from January to August, 2022.”
Pawan Dahinje, manager of a private car showroom, said, “Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the need to have a four-wheeler increased among people and hence the sale of cars increased too. Most of the customers were looking for CNG cars but the price difference between petrol and CNG cars was huge and even automobile companies were offering huge discounts on petrol cars. While calculating the usage of cars and how much fuel is required for a family, people preferred to purchase petrol cars.”
Vipul Alekar, a businessman, said, “We were planning to purchase a new car in March this year and when we checked for CNG cars of different companies, there was a long waiting period of over seven to eight months. So, there was a lot of difference in the prices. As we were looking for a family car which we would drive only on weekends, we bought a petrol car.”
Similarly in the case of two-wheelers, while many new electric bikes were introduced over the past few months, the number of people opting for electric bikes was very less compared to those opting for petrol bikes. As per the RTO data, a total of 78,591 petrol bikes were registered this year against only 11,681 electric bikes in the Pune RTO region. Also, due to instances of e-bikes catching fire on the road, people opted for traditional petrol bikes.
From February this year, there was a continuous hike in fuel prices and in May, the prices of petrol peaked at Rs120 per liter. At the same time, there was an increase every month in the prices of CNG gas and at one point, the prices reached Rs92 per kg in Pune. Today however, the prices have reduced in the city and petrol costs Rs105 per liter whereas CNG costs Rs85 per kg.
.
