Recording a 353 percent increase in the revenue for the first quarter of FY2021-22 at INR 29,510 million in comparison to the revenue generation of INR 6,510 million in the corresponding quarter of FY2020-21, Ashok Leyland is confident of a strong demand emerging post the second Covid-19 wave. Clocking export volumes of 1,437 units in the first quarter of FY2021-22, up 254 percent when compared to the export of 405 units in the first quarter of FY2020-21, the commercial vehicle manufacturer is concentrating on vaccination and the adherence of safety protocols to try and ensure that all its stakeholders stay protected from a potential third wave. Experiencing a 1,041 percent growth in domestic M&HCV volume in the first quarter of FY2021-22, which is almost twice than that of the industry growth volume at 562 percent during the same period, the company has reported a net loss of INR 28,20 million in the first quarter of FY2021-22 as against a net loss of INR 38.90 million in the corresponding quarter of FY2020-21. Selling 8,690 LCVs in the domestic market in the first quarter of FY2021-22, up 224 percent as compared to the sale of 2,686 LCVs in the corresponding quarter last fiscal, Ashok Leyland is closely observing the way the freight rates are shaping up. It is confident that freight rates will improve with higher availability of commercial vehicles once the Covid-19 subsidies and uncertainty fades. “We are hoping for the volumes to grow higher as the market gets better,” mentioned Mahadevan. “July (2021) has been a growth month,” he added. Stressing that they have had eight months of degrowth, Mahadevan said, “Economic growth will induce growth in CVs.”

CV trends
Working on a strategy for a robust domestic and exports growth, the commercial vehicle major is appointing dealers in Africa. Looking at gaining good traction in South East Asia, Ashok Leyland will launch new products in the LCV segment even though not in the immediate quarter. Buoyed by the international markets opening up and experiencing export thrust, the company is said to be testing an electric version of its LCV platform on which the Bada Dost is based in the UK. This vehicle is expected to be launched at the end of this fiscal or in the first half of the next fiscal. Of the opinion that electric vehicles are catching up, especially at the local point of use, on the encouragement of the governments, Mahadevan averred, “It is more to do with buses, but trucks will catch up.” Seeing a trend of petrol commercial vehicles in the low-tonnage segment of sub-1 tonne to 1.5 tonne, Mahadevan drew attention to the push on CNG. “We are ready in the LCV and ICV (segment),” he added. Of the firm belief that diesel vehicles will continue and the IC engine will coexist and not die overnight, Mahadevan said, “We are ready to cater to higher demand.” 
 

Watching closely how freight operators are able to pass on the fuel price hike to their end customers, Ashok Leyland is hoping that bus commute will pick up. A 40,000 units per annum market, according to Mahadevan, buses have been severely affected due to the Covid-19-led disruption. Delivering 40 electric buses to the city of Chandigarh recently (from where it has bagged an order to build and maintain e-buses with quick charging technology), Ashok Leyland is expecting pent-up demand to show up once normalcy returns. Also expecting demand to show up because of the need to ferry people without sacrificing social distancing norms, Mahadevan drew attention to their work towards further strengthening their position in the bus and LCV market segments. With the talk of schools reopening in regions where the Covid-19 infections are down, and the relaxation in Covid-19 norms in some region allowing more employees to return to their offices, bus demand is expected to improve post witnessing a sudden downfall mid-last year. Through the establishment of Switch Mobility, Ashok Leyland is keen to experience a speedier ride in the ‘cleaner and greener’ bus space. 
 

Managing costs and productivity 
Eyeing international markets like the US, Europe and Japan, the company, through the Switch Mobility subsidiary, has worked with a few consultants to make sure that its data points and numbers are on par with the current situation. Under Switch Mobility, it is developing new products to present an advantage of unique position in terms of value and premium positioning. For its Switch Mobility subsidiary that includes the erstwhile Optare of UK, Ashok Leyland has managed to get USD 18 million worth of investment from Dana Incorporated (Dana), a US-based manufacturer of drivetrain and e-propulsion systems. To do de-bottlenecking once enough demand is evident, Ashok Leyland, investing sufficiently in terms of capex, is confident of seeing early growth sprouts in LCVs. Therefore, if it were to do immediate capex investment, it would be in LCVs. Discussing with scrappage centres post the announcement of the scrappage policy, Ashok Leyland, the second-largest CV maker in the country, is witnessing good traction from its other business verticals like defence, power solutions and aftermarket. They are contributing to its top line. 
 

With the pace of vaccination picking up and positively setting in, Ashok Leyland is expecting a demand spike in commercial vehicles after the fear of a third Covid-19 wave is over. This, according to Mahadevan, could happen in the second half of this fiscal. Focusing on costs, productivity and middle level management, the commercial vehicle major is also concentrating on reducing its carbon footprint. Apart from announcing strategic steps to move towards net zero carbon mobility through Switch Mobility, Ashok Leyland, said Mahadevan, has formed an ESG committee of the Board. The committee will guide and propel the commercial vehicle manufacturer to achieve its sustainability agenda.
 

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The Supreme Court of India has issued an order affirming the protection of the red appearance and packaging used by Exide Industries for its automotive batteries.

The legal dispute commenced after Amara Raja began manufacturing and selling automobile batteries under the brand name Elito using red colouring and packaging, whilst promoting the products across its website and social media channels. Exide initiated legal proceedings on the grounds that the product and packaging resembled its own long-established trade dress.

The Supreme Court affirmed the interim orders previously passed by the Calcutta High Court. The directive requires Amara Raja to cease the manufacturing and sale of red Elito batteries to its channel partners, and restrains the company from promoting the items on media platforms.

Prior to this decision, a Single Bench of the Calcutta High Court had issued an interim order restraining Amara Raja from manufacturing or selling batteries in red or in packaging resembling Exide's products, a position subsequently upheld by a Division Bench of the High Court.

The Supreme Court order permits Amara Raja’s channel partners to liquidate only the red Elito products that were already present in the market and manufactured prior to the Division Bench order dated 2 April 2026. The main lawsuit remains pending.

"For generations, customers have associated Exide's red-coloured batteries and packaging with quality, reliability, and trust. The Supreme Court's order reinforces the value of our intellectual property and safeguards the market identity that Exide has built over decades," said Exide in a statement.

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India's automobile retail market maintained its growth momentum in May 2026 despite headwinds from an intense heatwave, higher fuel prices and geopolitical uncertainties in West Asia. According to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), overall vehicle registrations rose 9.55% year-on-year to 2.53 million units, marking the best-ever May performance across passenger vehicles, three-wheelers, tractors and overall retail sales.

In terms of segment-wise performance, two-wheeler sales came at 1.84 million units, up 7.54 percent YoY, as against 1.71 million units sold last year. Three-wheeler sales grew 3.56 percent YoY at 111,526 units.

On the other hand, the passenger vehicle segment reported robust retail sales of 402,591 units, which marked a 23.25 percent YoY growth, as compared to 326,656 units a year ago. FADA President, C S Vigneshwar, attributed the performance to robust rural demand, healthy booking pipelines, new product launches and growing adoption of alternative fuel vehicles.  

Tractor sales came at 83,092 units, up 11.17 percent, construction equipment was in the red with sales of 5,088 units, while commercial vehicle retails came at 83,823 units, up 5.29 percent YoY.

Vigneshwar said the “industry had successfully navigated multiple challenges that were flagged earlier, including heatwave conditions, fuel-price pressures and the evolving West Asia situation. While retail volumes declined 6.75 percent sequentially from April due to seasonal factors and a delayed onset of monsoon-linked agricultural activity, he noted that demand remained resilient across segments.”

The shift towards fuel-efficient and alternative powertrains gained momentum during the month. Dealers reported increased customer interest in electric vehicles following the fuel-price revision, with EV penetration in the two-wheeler segment rising to 9.25 percent from 6.11 percent a year ago. In passenger vehicles, alternative fuel models accounted for more than 38 percent of sales, supported by higher CNG and EV adoption.

Looking ahead, dealers remain cautiously optimistic. For June, over half of dealers expect growth, supported by the progress of the southwest monsoon, Kharif sowing preparations, the tail-end of the marriage season and a stable interest-rate environment. Passenger vehicle demand is expected to remain supported by strong bookings and EV launches, while commercial vehicles are likely to benefit from steady goods movement and infrastructure activity.

Confidence improves further for the June-August period, with nearly 60 percent of dealers anticipating growth as monsoon-driven rural incomes strengthen and agricultural activity gathers pace. While fuel prices, financing turnaround times and developments in West Asia remain key risks, the industry expects demand to gradually strengthen through the second quarter, supported by rural recovery, economic growth and continued consumer preference for fuel-efficient vehicles.

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Kiwi General Insurance, a digital-native non-life insurer, has officially commenced operations in India's non-life insurance market. Backed by private equity firm WestBridge Capital, which holds approximately a 70 percent stake, the company begins its rollout targeting the private car motor insurance segment.

Co-founded by industry veterans Neelesh Garg (Former MD & CEO of Tata AIG General Insurance) and Saurav Jaiswal, Kiwi received its regulatory certificate of registration from the IRDAI in March 2026

The company is operating under the brand philosophy ‘Your Peace, Our Policy,’ the insurer aims to leverage a completely in-house, proprietary technology stack and AI to dismantle legacy pain points, targeting a gross written premium (GWP) of INR 2 billion to INR 3 billion in FY2027.

Kiwi General Insurance’s core operating model signals a structural shift away from traditional asset-based pricing toward personalised customer pricing, allowing it to reward safer drivers with lower premiums.

By starting with motor insurance – a mass product category historically tied to low consumer trust and complex claim friction – Kiwi said it has engineered its product ecosystem directly around minimising the anxiety associated with repair cycles and policy updates.

To address the hesitation consumers face when deciding whether to file an insurance claim, Kiwi has introduced several proprietary features designed to eliminate out-of-pocket stress and administrative delays:

• Super NCB (No Claim Bonus): Protects a customer's accumulated renewal discounts if they file a claim. Instead of resetting to zero, the driver drops only one level down on the bonus scale. The architecture allows policyholders to earn up to 40 percent higher discounts than standard market NCB structures.
• Flexi Repair: Allows policyholders to digitally ‘bank’ minor aesthetic or physical damages from minor incidents over time, later combining them into a single, comprehensive claim. This shields the customer from paying a compulsory deductible for multiple separate micro-claims, allowing them to wait until a complete workshop repair event is worthwhile.
• InstaCash: Provides instant cash support transferred directly to the customer’s bank account on the exact day their vehicle is checked into a workshop for repairs, removing the burden of managing upfront out-of-pocket expenses.
• ‘PayFirst’ Outside-Network Experience: If a customer prefers to utilise a trusted vehicle repair shop that falls entirely outside of Kiwi’s extensive cashless garage network, the PayFirst protocol triggers an instant digital payout directly to the user to maintain total freedom of choice.

Kiwi's simplified operating architecture extends across its hybrid distribution networks to empower its field partners and independent agents for same-day digital onboarding for new distributors, instant premium reconciliation & real-time performance dashboards and shared, interactive claim trackers that provide single-point ownership, completely removing internal communication bottlenecks between the client, agent and repair facility.

Neelesh Garg said, “The insurance industry has long been shaped by legacy processes that create customer apprehension. Our goal is to rebuild it from first principles using technology, data, and disciplined execution. We are focused on making insurance simple, fast and consistent. With Kiwi, we are building an institution that customers and partners can truly rely on.”

Saurav Jaiswal, Managing Director & CEO, Kiwi General Insurance, added, “Indian consumers have a real trust deficit in insurance. If someone has to make a claim, they are already having a bad day. We are building Kiwi to get them through it as fast as possible. Customers today expect clarity, speed, and reliability, especially in moments that matter. From instant policy issuance and real-time claim tracking to faster decisions and single-point ownership, every element is designed to reduce ambiguity.”

Image credit: Pexels Mikhail Nilov

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Palmer Energy Technology (PETL), a UK clean energy and battery technology group led by former Aston Martin CEO Dr Andy Palmer CMG, has confirmed its acquisition of Kleandrive’s business and assets as a going concern through administration. The acquisition preserves a specialist British engineering capability focused on heavy vehicle decarbonisation.

Based in Essex, Kleandrive specialises in retrofitting traditional diesel vehicles – specifically legacy diesel buses – by replacing their internal combustion engines with fully electric drivetrains. This approach allows fleet operators to transition to zero-emission running without the embedded carbon costs or high capital outlay associated with new electric bus procurement.

The acquisition integrates Kleandrive's repowering workflows into the PETL group's broader clean propulsion portfolio. PETL is a leading developer of battery and battery management system (BMS) technology, utilising capabilities from its wholly-owned subsidiary Brill Power, a University of Oxford spin-out.

The combined business establishes a vertically integrated structure with reach across multiple development phases:

• Battery cell selection and advanced management systems.
• Powertrain integration and heavy-duty electric vehicle (EV) conversion.
• Fleet deployment, live commercial relationships with major UK bus operators and aftermarket support.

This architecture provides PETL with a direct application channel for its proprietary battery and energy management technology in a high-impact segment of UK transit. Furthermore, it creates a foundation for future retrofit expansion into adjacent commercial sectors where the economics of repowering are increasingly favourable, including coaches, heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and specialist commercial vehicles.

Heavy-duty buses represent an immediate opportunity within UK fleet electrification. Despite the UK government's end-of-sale date for new diesel buses and widespread operator commitments to zero-emission running, a significant portion of the national bus fleet remains heavily diesel-powered.

Repowering serves as a critical bridge for local authorities and regional operators working under strict capital constraints and decarbonisation targets. By converting existing assets, operators can lower capital costs compared to buying new vehicles, extend the useful life of their fleets and eliminate the manufacturing emissions of new vehicle fabrication.

Palmer Energy Technology intends to invest in the newly acquired capability as part of its wider clean energy portfolio. Decisions regarding the future operating structure, long-term asset deployment, and brand identity of the acquired business will be finalised and communicated in due course.

Dr Andy Palmer CMG said, “Britain keeps losing its industrial base one company at a time. I have spent years making the public argument that the UK cannot meet its decarbonisation targets or build a credible clean transport sector without homegrown businesses leading the way. This acquisition of Kleandrive’s business and assets as a going concern is a small but practical example of acting on that argument. Repowering existing diesel buses is one of the most cost-effective ways for operators to decarbonise their fleets. It deserves to be built here, by British engineers and we intend to make sure it is.”

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