A sharp surge in demand for EVs has pushed dealer inventories down to single-digit levels, with popular models on the verge of seeing waiting periods, according to auto dealears who spoke to businessline. The contrasting trend reflects a rapid shift towards EVs, CNG vehicles and small cars following recent fuel-price hikes, leaving dealers with growing inventories of larger petrol and diesel vehicles.The contrasting trend is beginning to split India’s automobile market into two distinct inventory cycles, tightening supply and lean inventory pipelines for EVs, while inventories of larger petrol and diesel vehicles continue to build up across dealerships as buyers increasingly prioritise lower running costs.Former FADA President and Automotive Skills Development Council (ASDC) Chairman Vinkesh Gulati told businessline that EV inventory levels across both passenger vehicles and electric two-wheelers had fallen to single-digit days and could soon translate into waiting periods if demand accelerates further.Waiting-period risk emerges“The EV inventory we are seeing could soon develop into waiting periods if demand accelerates even further,” Gulati said, adding that supply-chain and localisation constraints continue to cap production capacity for both electric two-wheelers and passenger vehicles.That surge in demand is now beginning to show up at the OEM level as well. Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Managing Director Shailesh Chandra said during the launch of the new Tiago EV that electric-vehicle bookings have risen sharply over the past few weeks, while the bottleneck was increasingly shifting towards supplier-side capacities rather than final vehicle assembly.“In-house capacity is not a problem. It is more on the supplier side where capacities have to be increased,” Chandra said.