FADA says EV retail rose 26.78% to 1,17,437 units in Navratri 2026, even as overall registrations fell 6.52%

The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations released its provisional Navratri retail data on 21 October 2026, covering registrations from 11 to 20 October. The headline number for the whole market was weak. Total retail came in at 11,23,086 units, down 6.52 per cent against Navratri 2025, with passenger vehicles falling 21.91 per cent to 1,82,728 units.

Electric vehicles went the other way. EV retail across all categories stood at 1,17,437 units, up 26.78 per cent year on year, taking EV penetration to 10.46 per cent of festive registrations against 7.71 per cent in the same window last year.

Two caveats before anyone reads a trend into the fall. Navratri 2026 ran for 10 days against 11 days in 2025, so the comparison is not like for like. And last year's festive window sat right on top of the GST 2.0 rate change, which pulled a large block of deferred buying into those days. Measured against Navratri 2024, retail was up 26.76 per cent and EV retail was up 83.06 per cent from 64,153 units. FADA president Sai Giridhar called electrification the standout of the season and said India's shift to EVs had become self-sustaining.

Where the EV volume actually came from

Electric two-wheelers did most of the work, at 75,758 units, up 33.41 per cent year on year and up 87.29 per cent against 2024. Electric three-wheelers were the second largest block at 28,086 units, but grew the slowest of the four categories at 10.51 per cent, which is what you would expect from a segment that has already been electric for years in large parts of north India.

Electric passenger vehicles reached 12,305 units, up 25.97 per cent. That is the number worth watching, because it is still a small share of the 1,82,728 passenger vehicles registered in those 10 days. Against Navratri 2024, when electric cars managed 3,252 units, the two-year rise is 278.38 per cent. Electric commercial vehicles were tiny at 1,288 units, though up 96.04 per cent, off a base of 292 units in 2024.

One data note from the release itself. The figures are drawn from 1,468 of 1,469 RTOs, with Telangana data missing for three-wheelers, commercial vehicles and tractors, so segment totals are provisional.

What this means if you are buying in Bengaluru

Festive 10-day data is a poor basis for a buying decision, because dealer discounts, registration backlogs and insurance timing all distort it. The useful signal is the direction of electric two-wheeler share, and Karnataka is well ahead of the national figure. In August 2026, Bengaluru registered 13,389 EVs out of 76,508 new vehicles, an EV share of 17.5 per cent, with electric two-wheelers at 9,453 of those. The city accounted for 50.3 per cent of Karnataka's 26,636 EV registrations that month.

The same data also shows the limit of the story. Bengaluru's cumulative registered EV fleet crossed 4.9 lakh by 30 August 2026, but that is 3.8 per cent of the city's roughly 1.3 crore vehicles. Charging demand follows the fleet, not the monthly sales chart, so a tenth of new registrations being electric does not yet mean a tenth of the cars queueing at a fast charger. For a buyer, the practical takeaway from the Navratri numbers is that electric scooters now have real volume behind them, which means more service points and better resale evidence, while electric cars are still a minority choice that needs home charging to make sense.

Sources

• Navratri Auto Retail Sales Rise 26.8% to 11.23 Lakh Units: FADA, Autocar Professional
• Navratri 2026 Vehicle Retail Crosses 11.23 Lakh Units, EV Sales Surge 27% Despite Overall Decline, Autopunditz
• EV retail sales rise 26.78% during Navratri, share climbs to 10.5%: FADA, BioEnergy Times
• Bengaluru Drives Karnataka's EV Growth: 1 in 6 New Vehicles Registered in August 2026 Was Electric, Autopunditz
• FADA press releases