Weekly News Wrap: Tata Motors PV Slips to Loss, Royal Enfield Brings Forward Capacity, BYD Launches Denza in India

The Indian automotive industry closed the November 9 to 15 week with a run of second-quarter results, a fresh round of capacity commitments and senior leadership changes at three of its largest manufacturers. Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 5,451 crore for the September quarter after Rs 6,738 crore in exceptional charges, mainly at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). JLR also cut its full-year margin guidance to 2-3 percent from 4 percent.

The company's India business posted record quarterly revenue of Rs 20,423 crore. It said it was absorbing around 60 percent of the rise in commodity costs and meeting only 60-65 percent of demand for its electric vehicles.

Royal Enfield brought forward its capacity expansion after dealer stocks fell to 7-8 days. VECV posted its highest-ever second-quarter dispatches, and Ashok Leyland's commercial vehicle volumes rose 32 percent. However, Ashok Leyland's standalone EBITDA margin fell 2 percentage points as material costs rose 46.6 percent, and MRF's net profit fell 26.6 percent on a 43 percent rise in raw material costs.

Overseas, CNH agreed to sell control of its construction equipment business to Kobelco and broke ground on a 1 lakh-tractor plant in Uttar Pradesh. Mercedes-Benz froze investment in its German plants, Reuters reported.

BYD launched its Denza luxury brand in India, and Kia committed $2 billion to a second plant in Andhra Pradesh. The week also brought Tata Motors' move to full ownership of Iveco, Warburg Pincus's deal for Pricol's electronics business and leadership changes at Mahindra, TVS Motor and Hyundai.

Earnings and Outlook

Tata Motors PV Swings to Rs 5,451 Crore Loss as JLR Cuts Guidance

Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles (TMPV) reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 5,451 crore for the September quarter (Q2 FY27). The loss came after Rs 6,738 crore in exceptional items, mainly employee separation costs and asset impairment at JLR. Consolidated revenue rose 34 percent year-on-year to Rs 96,920 crore.

The year-ago net profit of Rs 76,248 crore cannot be compared like for like, because it included a one-time gain of Rs 82,616 crore from the demerger of the commercial vehicle business. Before exceptional items, the company made a profit before tax of Rs 403 crore. A year earlier it made a loss of Rs 5,462 crore, when a cyber incident disrupted JLR's operations.

JLR lowered its FY27 adjusted EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) margin guidance to 2-3 percent from 4 percent and now expects a free cash outflow of about £1.25 billion. It cited weakness in China, geopolitical risks and restructuring costs. Of its £530 million in exceptional charges, £295 million relates to a voluntary redundancy programme covering about 4,000 people, and around 3,000 have already signed up to leave this financial year. Chief Financial Officer Richard Molyneux said he could not guarantee that the decline in China had bottomed out.

The company said JLR's near-term priority is building sales from its new electric models. JLR has started producing the Range Rover Electric, which already has about 5,000 orders, and deliveries begin early next year. At group level, free cash flow was negative Rs 6,300 crore for the quarter and net debt stood at Rs 50,800 crore, with the outflow concentrated at JLR.

In India, revenue rose 50.9 percent to Rs 20,423 crore on volumes of over 2 lakh units. However, EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margin fell 180 basis points to 4 percent, and profit before tax and exceptional items dropped to Rs 25 crore from Rs 156 crore. TMPV Chief Financial Officer Dhiman Gupta said price increases and cost actions had offset only 40 percent of the commodity cost hit, and the company was absorbing the rest. Managing Director and CEO Shailesh Chandra expects pressure from steel, rubber and copper to continue into Q3, with steeper price increases likely in Q4.

Chandra said demand exceeded supply in some models and powertrains. Tata is meeting only 60-65 percent of demand for its electric vehicles, even after raising monthly EV supplies from about 9,000 units in March-April to 16,000. It is working with suppliers on 26 critical parts to reach 20,000 a month within two to three months. EVs and CNG together made up more than half of its passenger vehicle volumes in the quarter.

Royal Enfield Brings Forward Capacity as Dealer Stocks Shrink to a Week

Royal Enfield is bringing forward the second phase of its Cheyyar expansion in Tamil Nadu. Bookings have risen about 20-21 percent year-on-year so far this financial year, and dealer inventory has fallen to 7-8 days against a normal three to four weeks. The second module will lift annual capacity from 16.5 lakh to 18 lakh motorcycles by Q4 FY27, with production targeted from January 2027. The third module, due in Q2 FY28, will take capacity to 20 lakh units.

"The retail for the season was limited only by the supplies," B. Govindarajan, Managing Director of Eicher Motors and CEO of Royal Enfield, said on the company's earnings call on Friday. Production has risen about 15 percent. During the festive period the company also raised direct shipments to dealers from 1-2 percent of dispatches to about 18 percent to cut transit time. Royal Enfield dispatched a record 1,33,442 motorcycles in October. Its April-October dispatches rose 18 percent to 8,42,538 units, while exports were flat at 78,990 units. A greenfield plant at Tada in Andhra Pradesh will add 4.5 lakh units in its first phase by FY30, taking total capacity to about 24.5 lakh.

Royal Enfield has delivered about 200 Flying Flea C6 electric motorcycles since the model launched in April. Govindarajan said enquiries were strong but bookings were converting slowly, and that electric motorcycle adoption, in his view, "will take more time". By contrast, VAHAN registrations of electric two-wheelers rose about 70 percent to 13.48 lakh units in April-October, driven largely by scooters.

VECV Posts Record Second-Quarter Dispatches; Ashok Leyland's Margin Narrows

VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV), the joint venture between Eicher Motors and AB Volvo, dispatched 28,071 vehicles in Q2. That is up 28.2 percent and its highest-ever second-quarter volume. Net profit rose 37 percent to Rs 341.6 crore on revenue up 24 percent to Rs 7,568.6 crore. Managing Director and CEO B. Srinivas said demand was broad-based, with light and medium trucks slightly ahead of heavy-duty trucks, and that first-half growth of 21.5 percent should carry into the second half.

Exports declined. Eicher-brand exports fell 5.9 percent to 1,715 units in the quarter, even as India's commercial vehicle exports rose 72.5 percent, according to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) data. They rebounded 30 percent in October. Srinivas said the company was finding new demand in Africa and other markets after disruption linked to the West Asia conflict.

Ashok Leyland's commercial vehicle volumes rose 32 percent to 64,677 units. Medium and heavy commercial vehicles grew 44 percent, against industry growth of 39 percent, and domestic truck market share excluding defence rose 1.5 percentage points to 31.5 percent. Consolidated revenue rose 35.4 percent to Rs 17,029.87 crore, while profit after tax grew 8.8 percent to Rs 891.45 crore. Standalone EBITDA margin slipped to 10.1 percent from 12.1 percent as material costs rose 46.6 percent, faster than revenue. Profit at the financing arm fell 28.1 percent as loan impairments rose.

Moreover, auditors disclaimed a conclusion on Ashok Leyland's consolidated results because of unresolved discrepancies in loan balances at subsidiary Hinduja Leyland Finance. The company said the differences were unlikely to materially affect the subsidiary's financial health.

MRF Profit Falls 27 Percent as Material Costs Jump

MRF's consolidated net profit fell 26.6 percent to Rs 386.99 crore in Q2, even though revenue rose 17.4 percent to Rs 8,660.19 crore. Cost of materials consumed rose about 43 percent to Rs 6,552.57 crore. Consolidated operating cash flow for the half year fell to Rs 634.16 crore from Rs 1,869.48 crore as inventories built up.

Global Pressures, Indian Bets

CNH Sells Construction Arm to Kobelco, Turns to India

CNH Industrial agreed to sell 70 percent of its construction equipment business to Japan's Kobelco Construction Machinery at an enterprise value of $1 billion. It will receive about $700 million in cash for debt reduction and keep 30 percent of the joint venture. The sale is the latest step in CNH's exit from businesses outside agriculture. That exit began with the 2022 spin-off of Iveco, which Tata Motors now owns almost entirely.

Three days later, CNH broke ground on a 100-acre tractor plant in the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) area of Uttar Pradesh. The plant will make 1 lakh tractors a year at full scale, and its first phase is due by mid-2028. Chief Executive Gerrit Marx told Autocar Professional that CNH is investing to more than double its manufacturing capacity in the state and moving global product engineering to India as Western farm equipment demand slumps.

Marx compared the scale of the two markets using Turkey. CNH's joint venture there, TürkTraktör, sells two of every five tractors in a market he put at about 26,000 units for the year. India, he said, sells that many in a single day during Diwali.

Mercedes-Benz Freezes Investment in German Plants

Mercedes-Benz has halted all investment in its German plants and is examining possible site closures, Reuters reported, citing a memo to employees. The company failed to agree labour cost cuts with its works council. Production chief Michael Schiebe had warned in September that two German plants could close without progress on savings.

Reuters described the move as the latest escalation of the crisis in the German auto industry. Volkswagen opens talks with the IG Metall union on November 24 over plans that could cut up to 100,000 jobs and close as many as four plants. Supplier Schaeffler said last week it would cut 3,460 jobs and close five European sites. Reuters also cited consultancy Roland Berger's estimate that at least 200,000 German automotive jobs could be lost by 2030.

Investment and Launches

Kia to Invest $2 Billion in Second Andhra Pradesh Plant

Kia India and its supplier partners will invest $2 billion in a second plant in Andhra Pradesh under a memorandum of understanding with the state government. The 465-acre facility will be able to build 2 lakh combustion-engine and electric vehicles a year, and production is due to start in early 2030. It will raise Kia's India capacity to 6.3 lakh units from 4.3 lakh at Anantapur. Kia produced 3.17 lakh vehicles in FY26 and exported 27,953. Managing Director and CEO Gwanggu Lee announced the investment at the CII Partnership Summit on November 12.

BYD Launches Denza Luxury Brand in India

BYD launched its luxury electric brand Denza in India on Friday. The range opens with the D9 seven-seat electric MPV at Rs 90 lakh and the Z9 GT performance car at about Rs 1.57 crore (ex-showroom), both imported as completely built units (CBUs). The company expects to convert an initial pipeline of 80-100 reservations into sales over the next two months, though it said these were prospective orders rather than confirmed deliveries. Buyers who want specific colour and trim combinations face waits of three to four months.

Denza will open showrooms in Gurugram, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Ahmedabad within 30-45 days, separate from BYD's network of about 50 outlets. The D9 will compete with the Toyota Vellfire, Lexus LM, Mercedes-Benz V-Class and electric MG M9. BYD said it would gauge the response before committing to more models, higher imports or local manufacturing. Its existing passenger vehicle business registered 6,379 vehicles in January-October, up about 35 percent, according to VAHAN data.

Deals

Tata Motors Confirms 96.25 Percent of Iveco, Begins Squeeze-Out

Final results of the reopened tender offer put Tata Motors' holding in Iveco Group at 96.25 percent. That is slightly below the provisional 96.29 percent announced on November 6. TML CV Holdings secured 18,203,217 more shares, worth €262.13 million, during the reopening period. Having crossed the 95 percent threshold, it will start a Dutch legal squeeze-out for the remaining 9,986,374 shares, about 3.68 percent of share capital, at the offer price of €14.40 a share. The company said the squeeze-out would not be preceded by the demerger and share sale it had proposed earlier.

Warburg Pincus to Take Control of Pricol's Electronics Business

Warburg Pincus agreed to buy the Mohan family's entire 38.51 percent stake in Pricol Autotech. That entity will house Pricol's driver information and connected vehicle solutions business once it is demerged and listed. The business makes instrument clusters, telematics, sensors and e-cockpit systems. It generated about Rs 2,400 crore of revenue in FY26, around 60 percent of Pricol's consolidated total. After the listing, Warburg will make a mandatory open offer for up to another 26 percent. The Mohan family will keep Pricol's actuation, control and fluid management business and its polymer products subsidiary.

Policy and Events

Bharat Mobility Expo 2027 Set for February 4 to 9

The third Bharat Mobility Global Expo will be held from February 4 to 9, 2027, at Bharat Mandapam and Yashobhoomi in New Delhi. Organisers expect more than 1,750 exhibitors across 11 concurrent shows and over 10 lakh visitors. At the curtain raiser, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal asked organisers to draw at least 25,000 international visitors and urged manufacturers to use exports to build scale. He said the European Union was expected to open up to Indian businesses at zero duty by March or April. He added that several Japanese companies were considering billion-dollar investments in India.

Entry, Exit and Elevation

Mahindra Redraws Automotive Leadership, Names New Logistics CEO

Mahindra & Mahindra will reorganise its automotive business under R Velusamy, President, Automotive Business, from April 1, 2027. Automotive division CEO Nalinikanth Gollagunta moves to group corporate development, reporting to Group CEO Anish Shah. There, he will evaluate what Shah called a "potentially significant new growth opportunity". Shuchi Suri, who joined from Unilever in May 2026, becomes Chief Sales & Marketing Officer. She will oversee sales, marketing, customer care, charging infrastructure and accessories, which puts EV charging and specialist electric SUV sales under one executive. Product planning, manufacturing operations and the Nagpur greenfield project will report directly to Velusamy.

Separately, Mohammed Turra will succeed Hemant Sikka as MD and CEO of Mahindra Logistics on December 16. Turra is currently Managing Director and CEO of the group's used-vehicle platform, Mahindra First Choice Wheels. Sikka steps down on December 15 after 26 years with the group.

TVS Motor Names New India Head Ahead of CEO Handover

TVS Motor has elevated Aniruddha Haldar to lead its India two-wheeler business, covering both petrol and electric models. Gaurav Gupta, President, India 2W Business, who joined from JSW MG Motor India in February 2025, leaves on December 24 for an external role. Haldar and three executives with wider remits will report to Peyman Kargar, President, International Business. Kargar succeeds K N Radhakrishnan as Director and CEO on January 27, 2027, and will keep direct charge of international operations until TVS names a new head.

International sales, which Kargar oversees, rose 51 percent to 1.75 lakh units in October. TVS also plans to raise production capacity in Brazil to 1.3 lakh units by 2027, from about 1.1 lakh this year, with local partner Mottu, and has opened its first flagship store in São Paulo.

Puneet Anand Leaves Hyundai Motor India After Nearly 29 Years

Puneet Anand, Hyundai Motor India's associate vice-president and head of corporate affairs, communications and social initiatives, has left the company after nearly 29 years. His last working day was November 6, according to people familiar with the matter. He joined in January 1998, the year Hyundai launched the Santro in India. He was one of the carmaker's main contacts with the government on manufacturing investment and policy, including its expansion to Talegaon in Maharashtra. A successor has not been named.

Ultraviolette Hires Former Royal Enfield Marketing Executive

Ultraviolette Automotive has appointed Abhijit Singh Brar as Head of Marketing from November 12. Brar spent more than eight years at Royal Enfield, where he built the marketing function in India before running international marketing across Europe, the Americas, Australia and South-East Asia. The Bengaluru-based electric motorcycle maker exports to 20 countries.