Chennai: Registrations of electric vehicles (EVs) witnessed a mixed trend in Sept 2025. While overall numbers for the first half of this fiscal crossed the one million mark, the month-on-month figures showed a marginal dip, largely due to a sharp slowdown in electric passenger vehicle sales.According to Vahan data, total registrations of battery-powered vehicles in Sept stood at 1.82 lakh units, down 3% from 1.88 lakh units in August. However, quarterly volumes showed improvement, with 5.70 lakh units registered in Q2 FY26 compared to 5.33 lakh units in Q1 of this fiscal. For H1 FY26, overall EV volumes reached 1.1 million units, up from 8.95 lakh units in the same period last year.The drag came from the electric passenger vehicle (e-PV) segment (cars and SUVs), which fell sharply to 15,100 units in Sept from 18,290 units in August. Analysts attribute this decline to the recent GST cuts for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles (from 28% to 18%) and hybrids (above 4 metre – 43% to 40%), which widened the price gap with EVs, whose GST rate remains unchanged at 5%.“The GST cut on hybrids has intensified the dilemma for customers, pulling EV penetration in the passenger vehicle segment down from nearly 5% to about 4%,” said Puneet Gupta, director at S&P Global Mobility.Echoing similar concerns, Poonam Upadhyay, director at Crisil Ratings, noted that the GST cut lured price-sensitive buyers toward ICE vehicles. “This shows that demand for electric passenger vehicles remains highly price-sensitive. The industry must strengthen EV adoption through better charging infrastructure, financing, and total cost-of-ownership benefits,” she said.Unlike passenger vehicles, the two-wheeler and three-wheeler EV categories remained largely unaffected by the GST rate revisions. Electric two-wheeler registrations in Sept stood at 1.04 lakh units, nearly flat compared to 1.05 lakh units in August. Electric three-wheelers recorded 61,000 units, down slightly from 63,500 units the previous month.In the two-wheeler space, TVS Motor maintained its lead with 22,491 registrations in Sept, though down from 24,282 in August. Bajaj Auto regained the second spot with a sharp rise to 19,554 units from 11,822 units. Ather Energy followed closely with 18,122 units (up from 18,070), while Ola Electric reported a steep decline to 13,374 units from 19,020. Hero MotoCorp also saw a dip, registering 12,740 units versus 13,372 in August.Industry experts believe the coming months will be crucial in determining whether the Sept slump in passenger EV sales was temporary or the beginning of a more sustained slowdown triggered by policy shifts.
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