Both EVs and CNGs Gain Share in the 2W and 4W Segments as per FADA Data

The two-wheeler market has spent six decades running almost entirely on petrol, and for most of that time, that felt like a permanent condition rather than a default. April 2026 data suggests the default is cracking.

Petrol's share in two-wheelers has slipped from 94.32% a year ago to 92.17% today, and while that two-point drop sounds modest, the direction it is moving toward is electric, not CNG. EV share in two-wheelers has gone from 5.46% to 7.76% in twelve months. CNG, despite years of government push and a ready infrastructure in several cities, sits at a rounding error of 0.07%.

This tells you something important about how the two-wheeler buyer thinks. When they are ready to leave petrol, they are not looking for a cheaper fuel to pour into the same kind of engine. They are done with engines entirely.

The Ola S1, Ather 450, and TVS iQube have done something that subsidised CNG kits could not - they made the act of charging feel modern and petrol feel dated. That perception shift, more than any spreadsheet comparison of running costs, is what is moving the needle.

Also Read - TVS Gives the iQube S a 4.7 kWh Battery Starts At 1.37 lakhs

The two-wheeler buyer who is switching today is largely urban, under 35, and buying a scooter for short commutes that rarely exceed 40 kilometres. For this specific use case, range anxiety is irrelevant and charging at home overnight is genuinely easier than finding a petrol pump at 8 AM in a congested colony lane.

The overwhelming majority i.e. buyers who are not switching, are in smaller cities and rural markets where public charging is absent, used EV prices are high, and petrol is simply the rational choice. The market is not converting uniformly. It is splitting, and the split is geographic as much as it is demographic.

The passenger vehicle story is a different animal altogether. Petrol dropped from 49.03% to 45.95% in a year, which is a meaningful contraction for a fuel that once commanded half the market. But EV, for all the noise around it, has only risen from 3.70% to 5.77%.

The real story is CNG, which has gone from 19.84% to 22.62% in twelve months and is now within reach of diesel's 17.39% share. Think about what it has taken for CNG to get here - no glamour, no government marketing campaign, no influencer content - just families doing the math around fuel costs and arriving at the same answer month after month.

Also Read - Top 10 Cheapest CNG Cars You Can Buy

The average CNG car in India today costs Rs 50,000 to 80,000 more than its petrol equivalent variant at purchase. At current CNG prices versus petrol, most urban buyers recover that premium within two to three years. That is a payback period that makes sense to a buyer who is not certain they will keep the car for a decade, and in India's current economic climate, very few buyers are making ten-year plans.

Diesel made a lot more sense back when when it was significantly cheaper per litre and buyers were confident they would drive enough to justify the higher purchase cost. Both of those conditions have weakened.

CNG has now stepped into that gap, not because it is exciting, but because it offers lower running costs, factory warranty, does not come with the BS6 complexity premium, and has a quietly, but quickly expanding network across most cities. 

What OEMs have figured out, and what the data confirms, is that Indian car buyers in the Rs 6 to 10 lakh bracket are not chasing technology, they are chasing the lowest total cost of ownership they can get, and right now, CNG is offering that by a significant margin.

Source: FADA

Image Source: Tata Motors, Ather Energy