Tata Motors
Tata Motors Limited, formerly Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO), is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is a part of Tata Group, an Indian conglomerate. Its products include passenger cars, trucks, vans, coaches, buses, sports cars, construction equipment and military vehicles.
Tata Motors has auto manufacturing and assembly plants in Jamshedpur, Pantnagar, Lucknow, Sanand, Dharwad, and Pune in India, as well as in Argentina, South Africa, Great Britain, and Thailand. It has research and development centres in Pune, Jamshedpur, Lucknow, and Dharwad, India and South Korea, Great Britain, and Spain. Tata Motors' principal subsidiaries purchased the English premium car maker Jaguar Land Rover (the maker of Jaguar and Land Rover cars) and the South Korean commercial vehicle manufacturer Tata Daewoo. Tata Motors has a bus-manufacturing joint venture with Marcopolo S.A. (Tata Marcopolo), a construction-equipment manufacturing joint venture with Hitachi (Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery), and a joint venture with Fiat Chrysler which manufactures automotive components and Fiat Chrysler and Tata branded vehicles.
Founded in 1945 as a manufacturer of locomotives, the company manufactured its first commercial vehicle in 1954 in collaboration with Daimler-Benz AG, which ended in 1969. Tata Motors entered the passenger vehicle market in 1988 with the launch of the Tata Mobile followed by the Tata Sierra in 1991, becoming the first Indian manufacturer to achieve the capability of developing a competitive indigenous automobile. In 1998, Tata launched the first fully indigenous Indian passenger car, the Indica, and in 2008 launched the Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car. Tata Motors acquired the South Korean truck manufacturer Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company in 2004 and purchased Jaguar Land Rover from Ford in 2008.
Tata Motors is listed on the (BSE) Bombay Stock Exchange, where it is a constituent of the BSE SENSEX index, the National Stock Exchange of India, and the New York Stock Exchange. The company is ranked 265th on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations as of 2019.
On 17 January 2017, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was appointed chairman of the company Tata Group. Tata Motors increases its UV market share to over 8% in FY2019. On 12 October 2021, private equity firm TPG invested $1 billion in Tata Motors' electric vehicle subsidiary.
Mahindra & Mahindra
Mahindra & Mahindra Limited is an Indian multinational vehicle manufacturing corporation headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was established in 1945 as Mahindra & Muhammed and later renamed as Mahindra and Mahindra. It is one of the largest vehicle manufacturers by production in India and the largest manufacturer of tractors in the world. It is a part of the Mahindra Group, an Indian conglomerate. It was ranked 17th on a list of top companies in India by Fortune India 500 in 2018. Its major competitors in the Indian market include Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors.
Mahindra & Mahindra was founded as a steel trading company on 2 October 1945 in Ludhiana as Mahindra & Muhammed by brothers Harikrishnan and Jayakrishnan and Jagdish Chandra Mahindra along with Malik Ghulam Muhammad. Anand Mahindra, the present Chairman of Mahindra Group, is the grandson of Jagdish Chandra Mahindra. After India gained independence and Pakistan was formed, Muhammad emigrated to Pakistan. Muhammad acquired Pakistani citizenship and settled in Lahore, and in 1948 became Pakistan's first finance minister.
In 1948, the company changed its name to Mahindra & Mahindra. They eventually saw a business opportunity in expanding into manufacturing and selling larger MUVs and started assembling under licence of the Willys Jeep in India. Soon, M&M was established as the Jeep manufacturer in India, later commenced manufacturing light commercial vehicles (LCVs) and agricultural tractors.
In 1999, Mahindra purchased 100% of Gujarat Tractors from the Government of Gujarat and in 2017 Mahindra renamed it as Gromax Agri Equipment Limited, as part of new brand strategy and the models continue to be sold as Trakstar.
In 2007, M&M acquired Punjab Tractor Limited (PTL) making it the world's largest tractor manufacturer. Subsequent to this take-over, the former PTL was merged into M&M and transformed as Swaraj division of Mahindra & Mahindra in the year 2009.
Over the past few years, the company has taken interest in new industries and in foreign markets. In 2008, they entered the two-wheeler industry by taking over Kinetic Motors in India.
In 2010, M&M took a 55% stake in the REVA Electric Car Company and in 2016, they renamed it Mahindra Electric Mobility Ltd after taking 100% ownership.
In 2011 Mahindra and Mahindra acquired South Korea's SsangYong Motor Company. In 2010–11 M&M entered into micro drip irrigation with the takeover of EPC Industries Ltd in Nashik.
In October 2014, Mahindra and Mahindra acquired a 51% controlling stake in Peugeot Motocycles and progressed to acquire a 100% controlling stake in October 2019.
In May 2015 Mahindra acquired a 33.33% stake in Japanese tractor manufacturer Mitsubishi Agricultural Machinery (MAM), a subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
In December 2015, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd and affiliate Tech Mahindra Ltd, through a special purpose vehicle (SPV), have agreed to buy a 76.06% stake in Italian car designer Pininfarina SpA, for €25.3 million (around Rs.186.7 crore).
In March 2016, Mahindra acquired 35% in Finland-based Sampo Rosenlew, entering the combine harvester business, subsequently increasing its stake in the company to 49.04% in December 2019.
In January 2017, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd acquired a 75.1 equity stake in Hisarlar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonym Sirketi (Hisarlar), a farm equipment company, marking its entry into Turkey and in September 2017 acquired another Turkish tractor and foundry business Erkunt Traktor Sanayii AS for ?800 crore.
In October 2019, Mahindra entered into a joint venture with Ford by establishing Ford India in which Mahindra & Mahindra acquired a controlling 51% stake.
In April 2020, the company ended its joint venture with Renault, with Mahindra & Mahindra buying out Renault's stake. Renault continues to license and supply key components such as engines and transmissions to Mahindra & Mahindra.
In December 2023, Mahindra & Mahindra acquired a 60.01% stake in Emergent Solren Private Limited, a solar power generator subsidiary of Mahindra Holdings Limited, for ?288.05 crore.
Maruti Suzuki
Maruti Suzuki India Limited, formerly known as Maruti Udyog Limited, is an automobile manufacturer in India. It is a 56.21% owned subsidiary of the Japanese automotive manufacturer Suzuki Motor Corporation. The company is headquartered at New Delhi.
As of September 2022, the company had a leading market share of 42% in the Indian passenger car market.
Maruti Udyog Limited was founded by the government of India in 24 February 1981, only to merge with the Japanese automobile company Suzuki in October 1982. The first manufacturing factory of Maruti was established in Gurugram, Haryana, in the same year.
In 1982, a license and joint venture agreement (JVA) was signed between Maruti Udyog Ltd., and Suzuki of Japan. At first, Maruti Suzuki was mainly an importer of cars. In India's closed market, Maruti received the right to import 40,000 fully built-up Suzuki in the first two years, and even after that the early goal was to use only 33% indigenous parts. This upset the local manufacturers considerably. There were also some concerns that the Indian market was too small to absorb the comparatively large production planned by Maruti Suzuki, with the government even considering adjusting the petrol tax and lowering the excise duty in order to boost sales. Local production commenced in December 1983. In 1984, the Maruti Van with the same three-cylinder engine as the 800 was released and the installed capacity of the plant in Gurgaon reached 40,000 units.
In 1985, the Suzuki SJ410-based Gypsy, a 970 cc 4WD off-road vehicle, was launched. In 1986, the original 800 was replaced by an all-new model of the 796 cc hatchback Suzuki Alto (SS80) and the 100,000th vehicle was produced by the company. In 1987, the company started exporting to western markets, when a lot of 500 cars were sent to Hungary. By 1988, the capacity of the Gurgaon plant was increased to 100,000 units per annum.
In 1989, the Maruti 1000 was introduced and the 970 cc, three-box was India's first contemporary sedan. By 1991, 65 percent of the components, for all vehicles produced, were indigenized. After liberalization of the Indian economy in 1991, Suzuki increased its stake in Maruti to 50 percent, making the company a 50-50 joint venture with the government of India as the other stake holder.
In 1993, the Zen, a 993 cc engined hatchback was launched and in 1994 the 1,298 cc Esteem sedan was introduced. Maruti produced its 1 millionth vehicle since the commencement of production in 1994. Maruti's second plant was opened with annual capacity reaching 200,000 units. Maruti launched a 24-hour emergency on-road vehicle service. In 1998, the new Maruti 800 was released, being the first change in design since 1986. Zen D, a 1,527 cc diesel hatchback, and Maruti's first diesel vehicle, and a redesigned Omni were introduced. In 1999, the 1.6-litre Maruti Baleno three-box sedan and Wagon R were also launched.
In 2000, Maruti became the first car company in India to launch a call center for internal and customer services. The new Alto model was released. In 2001, Maruti True Value, selling and buying used cars was launched. In October of the same year the Maruti Versa was launched. In 2002, Esteem Diesel was introduced. Two new subsidiaries were also started: Maruti Insurance Distributor Services and Maruti Insurance Brokers Limited. Suzuki Motor Corporation increased its stake in Maruti to 54.2 per cent.
In 2003, the new Suzuki Grand Vitara XL-7 was introduced while the Zen and the Wagon R were upgraded and redesigned. The four millionth Maruti vehicle was built and they entered into a partnership with the State Bank of India. Maruti Udyog Ltd. was listed on BSE and NSE after a public issue, which was oversubscribed tenfold. In 2004, the Alto became India's best selling car overtaking the Maruti 800 after nearly two decades. The five-seater Versa 5-seater, a new variant, was created while the Esteem was re-launched. Maruti Udyog closed the financial year 2003–04 with an annual sale of 472,122 units, the highest ever since the company began operations and the fiftieth lakh (5 millionth) car rolled out in April 2005. The 1.3-litre Suzuki Swift five-door hatchback was introduced in 2005.
In 2006 Suzuki and Maruti set up another joint venture, "Maruti Suzuki Automobiles India", to build two new manufacturing plants, one for vehicles and one for engines. Cleaner cars were also introduced, with several new models meeting the new Bharat Stage III emission standards. In February 2012, Maruti Suzuki sold its ten millionth vehicle in India. In July 2014 it had a market share of more 45%. In May 2015, the company produced its fifteen millionth vehicle in India, a Swift Dzire.
On 25 April 2019, Maruti Suzuki announced that it would phase out production of diesel cars by 1 April 2020, when the Bharat Stage VI emission standards come into effect. The new standards would require a significant investment from the company to upgrade its existing diesel engines to comply with the more stringent emission standards. Chairman R.C. Bhargava stated, "We have taken this decision so that in 2022 we are able to meet the corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE) norms and higher share of CNG vehicles will help us comply with the norms. I hope the union government's policies will help grow the market for CNG vehicles." Diesel cars accounted for about 23 percent of Maruti Suzuki's annual sales.
On 18 July 2012, Maruti's Manesar plant was hit by violence. According to Maruti management, the production workers attacked supervisors and started a fire that killed company's General Manager of Human Resources Avineesh Dev and injured 100 other managers, including two Japanese expatriates.
As of September 2022, the company had a leading market share of 42% in the Indian passenger car market.