National Automobile Scrappage Policy

India’s National Automobile Scrappage Policy seeks to remove unfit and polluting vehicles from the roads through an organised system of fitness testing and environmentally sound scrapping. Introduced in 2021 as the Voluntary Vehicle-Fleet Modernization Programme, its core objective is to modernise the vehicle fleet while improving road safety, reducing pollution and promoting resource efficiency.

How the policy works

The policy establishes a fitness-based retirement system rather than treating vehicle age alone as the general criterion for scrapping privately owned vehicles. Owners are encouraged to surrender vehicles that fail prescribed fitness standards to authorised facilities.

• Automated Fitness Testing Stations assess roadworthiness and emission-related fitness through objective tests.
• Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities dismantle end-of-life vehicles and channel recoverable materials into authorised recycling systems.
• Fiscal and registration-related incentives are intended to encourage owners to replace scrapped vehicles with newer, cleaner and safer models.

Environmental and economic rationale

Formal scrapping supports a circular economy by recovering materials such as steel, aluminium, plastics and vehicle components. It can reduce pollution from older vehicles, improve road safety, limit unsafe informal dismantling and lower demand for some virgin raw materials.

• Fleet modernisation can accelerate the diffusion of vehicles complying with newer emission and safety standards.
• Scientific handling of end-of-life vehicles can reduce leakage of oils, batteries and other hazardous materials into the environment.

Relationship with the EV transition

The policy is technology-neutral and does not itself require the purchase of an electric vehicle. However, retirement of old internal-combustion vehicles can complement cleaner-mobility policies by creating opportunities to shift towards electric or other lower-emission vehicles.