The Indian automobile industry saw varied performances across two-wheelers, passenger vehicles, and commercial vehicles in August 2025, with TVS Motor Co posting record-breaking numbers, Bajaj Auto seeing a dip in motorcycles, while Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and VE Commercial Vehicles reporting steady to moderate growth.

TVS Motor Company achieved its highest-ever monthly sales, crossing the 500,000 units milestone. Domestic two-wheeler sales rose 28 percent from 289,073 units in August 2024 to 368,862 units in August 2025. Motorcycle sales grew 30 percent, while scooter sales jumped 36 percent. In the three-wheeler segment, TVS Motor Co saw a 47 percent increase with 18,748 units sold.

Bajaj Auto reported a decline in the domestic two-wheeler market, with sales falling 12 percent to 184,109 units from 208,621 units last year. However, three-wheeler sales showed resilience, recording 48,289 units, a 7 percent growth over August 2024.

Suzuki Motorcycle India reported domestic sales growth of 5 percent at 91,629 units, as compared to 87,480 for same period last year. On the exports front, the company shipped 22,307 units, which was 29 percent higher YoY. Interestingly, the company reported its highest-ever spare parts sales in August 2025 at INR 856 million, up 21 percent YoY.

Deepak Mutreja, Vice-President – Sales & Marketing, Suzuki Motorcycle India, said, “We extend our heartful gratitude to our customers for their continued trust in Suzuki two-wheelers. The growth in August sales gives us momentum going into the festive season and we look forward to delighting more customers with our products and services.”

Mahindra & Mahindra faced pressure in the utility vehicle (SUV) segment, where sales declined 9 percent YoY to 39,399 units. On the other hand, commercial vehicle sales rose to 22,427 units, supported by strong growth in the 2T–3.5T LCV category and three-wheelers.

Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra, said, “August witnessed relatively robust demand in the SUV segment amidst anticipated GST rate changes. This month, Mahindra reported 7.4 percent YoY growth in PV Vahan registrations. In our commercial vehicles segment, Vahan registrations grew by 16 percent YoY (<7.5T LCV category). With the final GST announcement approaching, we consciously decided to bring down the wholesale billing to minimise the stock being carried by our dealers. We look forward to the GST rationalisation, which would be a demand driver through the festive season. Total vehicle sales stood at 75,901 units, marking a flat growth compared to the same period last year, with SUV sales of 39,399 units recording -9 percent YoY decline.” 

Tata Motors recorded total domestic sales of 68,482 units, down 2 percent from 70,006 units in August 2024. Passenger vehicle sales, including EVs, fell 7 percent to 41,001 units, while commercial vehicle sales rose 6 percent to 27,481 units. Notably, Tata’s EV sales surged 44 percent to 8,540 units.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor maintained its growth trajectory with domestic sales of 29,302 units, an 11 percent increase over August 2024.  

Varinder Wadhwa, Vice-President, Sales-Service-Used Car Business, said, “We sold 34,236 units in August 2025, maintaining our steady presence in the market and are encouraged by the continued trust customers place in our cars and services. September will be an important phase for the industry overall and we will closely observe market trends as they unfold. At Toyota, our focus remains on innovating and introducing value-added services through the festive season, with the hope of uplifting customer sentiment and making purchase decisions easier and more joyful.”

Ashok Leyland witnessed a flat growth with 13,622 units sold in the domestic market, which was 2 percent higher than 13,347 units sold last year. This includes 7,991 M&HCVs, up 3 percent YoY and 5,631 LCVs, up 1 percent YoY.

VE Commercial Vehicles reported domestic sales of 6,331 units, a 5 percent growth over 6,028 units sold in August 2024.

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Vietnamese automotive company VinFast has expanded the role of its India Chief Executive Officer, Tapan Ghosh, to oversee operations in Indonesia, uniting the company's management structure across both regional markets.

Interestingly, Ghosh becomes Chief Executive Officer for VinFast Operations across both countries, making him the first executive from India to manage multiple markets for the Vietnamese company.

Since joining the Vietnamese brand in 2025 from Hyundai Motor India, Ghosh has managed local manufacturing setups, dealership distribution expansion and product strategies. His new responsibilities will include overseeing the development of a complete knock-down (CKD) assembly operation in Indonesia.

The dual-country manufacturing and distribution setup establishes operational hubs for VinFast across South Asia and Southeast Asia, supporting its strategy to expand production beyond Vietnam.

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Chinese automotive major Geely Automobile Holdings has announced changes to its board of directors and executive leadership structure, effective 18 August 2026, as part of its succession planning framework.

Li Shu Fu has resigned as Chairman of the Board and Executive Director to focus on other business commitments. He has accepted an appointment as Honorary Chairman for Life, a role outside the formal corporate governance structure. Li remains a controlling shareholder of the company and confirmed that he has no disagreement with the board regarding his departure.

On the other hand, Executive Director An Cong Hui has been appointed Chairman of the Board. The board cited An's operational experience within the group and strategic alignment with the controlling shareholder entity as factors supporting the appointment. Independent non-executive directors will continue to oversee potential conflict management protocols under Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing rules.

Further board adjustments include the resignation of Li Dong Hui, Daniel, from the role of Vice-Chairman. He retains his seat as an Executive Director. Gui Sheng Yue has stepped down as Chief Executive Officer and assumed the role of Vice Chairman while remaining an Executive Director.

Following Gui's transition, Executive Director Gan Jia Yue has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. Gan assumes responsibility for managing the group's operational activities and executing long-term business objectives.

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Mumbai-based automotive major Mahindra Group is preparing to test the waters of India’s nascent lifestyle pickup segment, while accelerating a deliberate international expansion and doubling down on its electric vehicle ambitions.

It was on 14^th August that Mahindra took the wraps off its much-anticipated global pickup truck christened – ‘Mahindra Lifestyler’ and ‘Scorpio Lifestyler’ (for India market), based on the popular Scorpio SUV. While the technical details and pricing have still been kept under wraps, what's known is that it will be available in three variants - Trail, Valley and Reef editions. It will be launched by April 2027 with prices starting under INR 1.95 million (ex-showroom). 

R Veluswamy, President - Automotive Technology & Product Development, Mahindra Group and Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra, outlined a strategy rooted in what they describe as latent customer demand rather than existing market size.

“The latent demand, latent need is the most important thing,” Gollagunta said. “So far what we have seen is, it’s a compromise choice they make. Because they don’t have the right product at the right price point. So, they’re making either a compromise on the capability or making a compromise on the budget.”

He added, “We believe that the latent demand for an uncompromised choice means there’s an open space for us to play.”

Veluswamy reinforced the point by recalling the original Scorpio’s arrival. “When we first saw the car, we all were blown away, but no customer had expressed that they wanted such a car. So, to say that the pickup segment is not exist may be a statement that’s not representative of the customer. They may not know how to express it. The latent desires are always understood.”

He continued: “We have seen customers who want the pickup character and who want the SUV character and who want the 4x4 character at an affordable price point. If you put all of them together, Mahindra has the deep pickup expertise. Mahindra has the deep SUV expertise; we put all of them together, and we think it will click with the customer.”

The forthcoming Scorpio-badged Lifestyler pickup was originally conceived as a global product.

“You have to remember three years ago, this was a global pickup as we call it. This was for the global market. But in three years, we have had enough indications to tell us that there’s some latent demand in this market,” Gollagunta noted.

Responding to a query on the volume expectations, Gollagunta said, “I won’t get into the volumes to be honest. The way we are looking at it is we are the third largest automotive market in the world. We believe the market is evolving and maturing and becoming a lot more sophisticated. The problem we see is there are not enough of these choices in these markets.”

Veluswamy pointed to past surprises as evidence that the right product can rewrite expectations. “How many of us thought the 9E would have such volume? And the 9S when we launched, how many of us thought that would have that volume? It clearly tells if you have the right product for the right customer needs. They don’t look at the price. They look at the value proposition.”

He added of the XUV700: “Who in the earth would have imagined that this car will be selling at 9,000 units per month. Who would have thought?”

The Scorpio brand itself is viewed as elastic enough to support the new model. “Our sense is the Scorpio brand means a lot to different people,” Gollagunta observed.

“There are a lot of customers who have a Scorpio Classic, who tell us that I will not buy a Scorpio N. A lot of Scorpio N customers say that I don’t see myself in a Scorpio Classic. Yet the market has stretched and you have two distinct segments with very loyal customers on both sides. So, it’s hard to predict right now. Our view is there’s enough elasticity in the brand today to take a price that is very distinct in itself,” he said.

Pricing has been carefully signalled rather than fixed. “I’ve given one so that now I can have conversations,” Gollagunta explained. “The starting price is less than this, we said. It’s a conversation starter for me to have conversations with customers.”

Veluswamy clarified, “The starting price is less than that. We haven’t announced the price. We have just put a number.”

When queried about the production capacity for the upcoming Lifestyler, “Every new product comes, it comes with a capacity,” Veluswamy said. “So there is a capacity for the product, and there is an operationalisation based on the demand; you operationalise the capacity.”

The vehicle will benefit from body-on-frame technology, 4x4 expertise and technologies already proven elsewhere in the range. “We are riding on that high price point SUVs, which means high technologies that we already use in our ICE and EVs. That is what we are bringing to pickup,” he noted.

Beyond India, the company is pursuing a measured three-phase global approach.

“There is a three-phase strategy. The core markets where we have a strong legacy will continue to double down. Those markets: South Africa, Australia for sure. The second wave is the other LHD markets where we think there is significant potential for us. And we have talked about UK. If we go there, we want to go there to win. And if you are not convinced we cannot win, we will be careful about doing it. I am not in a hurry because I have a core market which is doing well. But we will go out there; the difference is we now have products which are built for the globe,” Gollagunta averred.

Veluswamy provided market context: “We sold about 235,000 units last year (2025) in Australia. And about 135,000 units in South Africa. But the majority of them are these mid-size pickups. The South African market is looking for versatility. Whereas the Australian market is looking for adventure, freedom, go anywhere, towing 3.5-tonne trailers, premium upmarket. So, it is really two different markets.”

The Indian market in the recent past has seen a slew of automakers in the passenger vehicle space introduce hybrid products. For Mahindra, the message has been clear: electrification was unambiguous.

“Our focus is electric, electric, electric. That’s it,” Veluswamy declared.

Furthermore, the company had no intention to dilute its SUV focus simply to chase EV volume elsewhere. “We play in the SUV market. So wherever there is an SUV market, we bring electric. You have to see multiple parameters. It’s not one-dimensional.”

Gollagunta added that electric powertrains are already on the roadmap for future platforms: “We did have the NU_IQ we launched last year, and we said that there is going to be electric powertrains on NU_IQ. But if we do it, it has to be in a way that we believe taps into a platform architecture.”

Veluswamy highlighted the recently introduced BE6 for its intelligence layer.

“The intelligence of the car is different from intelligent driving. Naturally, it can speak to you. You can ask many questions. It is like a teacher, a tuition teacher. That is phenomenal. It understands the context, the context reasoning. It understands natural language reasoning. You do not have to be as accurate as Alexa. That is why we say it is unmatched.”

He detailed the system’s architecture: “It goes to the cloud, and it has 17 agents, and 17 agents are working in tandem. If they have to get it from the LMM, the Gemini model, then it directly gets it.”

Simple commands remain local and immediate, while contextual or knowledge-based queries draw on the cloud. “Our electric vehicle is one of the best cyber security certified. Without cybersecurity, you cannot even bring this in,” he added.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see whether the Scorpio Lifestyler remains a niche experiment or becomes another volume surprise will depend on the next six months of customer conversations.

What is already clear is that Mahindra intends to treat both the Indian opportunity and its wider global and electric ambitions with the same methodical, brand-first discipline that has underpinned its recent growth.

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Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) Director of Sales and Marketing Yogesh Mathur has exited the company after more than two decades, sources familiar with the matter have confirmed.

Mathur joined the Japanese two-wheeler major in June 2001 and rose through the ranks to become one of its longest-serving senior leaders. At the time of his departure, he held end-to-end responsibility for sales, distribution, logistics, customer service and business planning across HMSI’s network of more than 6,500 dealer and customer touchpoints nationwide. Under his oversight, the company managed annual volumes exceeding 5 million units and a turnover of approximately INR 500 billion, spanning rural, semi-urban, urban, metro, premium and electric vehicle segments

Mutsuo Usui, Director – Sales at Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India, has succeeded Mathur, according to people aware of the development. The company has not issued any official statement on the leadership change.

Mathur’s career at HMSI progressed from executive roles to regional head across every geography in India, followed by stints as division head for marketing and business planning, operating head of sales and marketing, and ultimately senior-level expert. He also served on the company’s CSR Committee, Business Ethics Committee and Information Security Management System (ISMS) Committee.

As HMSI’s official spokesperson, he represented the company in national media for over five years.

At present, there are no further details on Mathur’s next move or the exact effective date of the transition were immediately available.

The move comes at a time when Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India is gearing up to unleash one of its most aggressive product launch roadmap compromising of 10 motorcycles and scooters, which includes 7 models and 3 refreshed variants.

The lineup spans internal combustion engine, electric and flex-fuel mobility, featuring models such as the ADV 160, CB 500, Rebel 300, Rebel 500, XR 300L, XR 300 Rally and QC3 EV. Production utilises local sourcing and manufacturing capabilities to support market expansion

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