Ease of Vehicle Ownership Index: Andhra Pradesh Tops, UP Last

What the index measures

On November 5, IndiaTech.org and Consumer VOICE released India's first Ease of Vehicle Ownership Index, a ranking of 15 states and union territories on how easily a buyer or seller can transfer a used vehicle's registration. The index scores each state out of 10 across six areas: policy and regulation, digital infrastructure, process efficiency, transparency, dealer support, and cost. No state scored above 6 out of 10, autoguideindia.com and motownindia.com reported.

The index matters to this beat because used car sales now outnumber new car sales in India, and the paperwork around an ownership transfer, the RC, the NOC and the hypothecation removal, is handled at the dealer's desk as often as at the RTO counter.

The state rankings

Andhra Pradesh topped the list with a score of 5.91, followed by Kerala at 5.74. Tamil Nadu and Delhi tied for third at 4.58, ahead of Karnataka at 4.30. Uttar Pradesh finished last at 2.47, just behind Bihar at 2.51 and West Bengal at 2.56, according to the index tables published by autoguideindia.com and motownindia.com.

The gap shows up in time and money. A transfer takes 7 to 10 days in Andhra Pradesh but can run past 30 days in Uttar Pradesh. Road tax on a ₹6 lakh petrol car ranges from 3 per cent in Uttar Pradesh to 14 per cent in Karnataka and Telangana, a difference of more than ₹66,000 on the same car. At Tamil Nadu's border RTOs, an official fee of ₹800 can turn into ₹7,000 to ₹8,000 once agents and manual verification are added, and Bihar sellers reported paying ₹13,000 to ₹14,000 over the statutory fee. A March 2026 CAG audit of 145 Karnataka cases found motor vehicle tax refunds taking 436 days on average, per motownindia.com.

What buyers, sellers and dealers run into

A Consumer VOICE survey of more than 1,000 respondents, cited in the same reporting, found 39 per cent still had an RC transfer pending after the sale was done, and 28.1 per cent of sellers later got a traffic challan or legal notice for a vehicle they no longer owned. Only 9.6 per cent saw a transfer finish inside two weeks. More than half, 52.5 per cent, said they would complete the transfer themselves if the whole process moved online.

The index also flagged how thin the formal dealer network for used vehicles still is. Only 2,032 dealers nationally are registered under the Authorised Dealer of Registered Vehicles framework, which lets a dealer hold a used car's title in its own name between sale and resale. Kerala alone accounts for 875 of them, while Delhi, Karnataka and Telangana have none registered at all, autoguideindia.com reported.

What the industry is asking for

Cars24 and Spinny, India's two largest organised used car platforms, backed the index at its launch. Cars24 builder Vikram Chopra said ownership transfers must ensure legal responsibility and liability move together between buyer and seller. Spinny co-founder and COO Mohit Gupta called for the sector to work with policymakers to simplify transfers, expand the ADRV framework, streamline hypothecation paperwork and digitise the process end to end.

Their asks include statutory deadlines for RC approvals and road tax refunds, acceptance of DigiLocker and mParivahan documents at the RTO counter, bank integration with the VAHAN portal to auto clear hypothecation, and a single "One Bharat, One Road Tax" scale instead of the current state by state rates.

Sources

• Andhra Pradesh tops India's Ease of Vehicle Ownership Index 2026
• AP, Kerala lead India's first ease of vehicle ownership index
• India's first 'ease of vehicle ownership index' ranks 15 states