India’s passenger-vehicle market has witnessed astonishing growth in the past decade. Barring the current hiccups, on account of ongoing urbanisation, increasing expenditure from the middle-class and young generation, and the country’s economic growth and supportive regulations and policies, India is expected to emerge as the world’s third-largest passenger vehicle market in future. However, the growth story will bring severe challenges for the parking space segment, especially in metro cities for which parking space has been a perennial issue.

As per a survey, a person spends an average of 17 hours a year for searching parking slots in New York, and the situation is grimmer in India where on average a person spends around 80 hours per year on finding parking. However, the situation varies in different cities.

Amit Lakhotia, Founder and CEO, Parviom Technologies, which owns Park+, faced car parking-related issues like any other Indians residing in metro cities. “Every day, we face challenges in finding an available parking slot, be it in office parking, malls, hotels or any other busy places. This leads to frustration and loss of time and fuel as well,” says Lakhotia. Due to difficulty in finding spaces for parking, people park their vehicles in the non-parking area or on the roads that occupies half of the road and which again causes traffic congestion, accidents, environmental hazards and even criminal activities.

“Parking related day-to-day issues were on my mind for some time while I was working with Paytm,” recalls Lakhotia. Having faced such parking-related issues, Amit Lakhotia found a business opportunity and launched the App, Park+, in 2019, which provides a suite of solutions around parking and more. With the help of Park+ app, users can discover parking, book their slot as well as other services such as car wash and pay digitally. They also provide RFID based security solutions to apartments and corporate setups.

Early this year, Park+ has raised $11 million in a financing round co-led by venture capital funds Sequoia India and Matrix Partners India. Prominent angel investors, including Deep Kalra, Rajesh Magow, Ashish Hemrajani, Kunal Shah, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal also participated in the round. Park+ is also the first company to collaborate with Aarogya Setu app for crowd management in malls.

The Park+ business model starts with identifying hot spots and taking suppliers- parking operators -onboard in these areas. For a selected site, the company takes the responsibility to build and maintain the infrastructure needed for the business. Infrastructure includes different servers and hardware. Light hardware is used to monitor entry and exit, while complicated hardware is used for barriers, parking sensors and RFID based security solutions. “Deployment of infrastructure is based on the needs, but charges vary accordingly,” adds Lakhotia.

Park+ earns a commission from the parking operators of the parking space and a service charge from that availing of the service.

Lakhotia is confident that his app-based business will boom on the surging numbers of smartphone users and operators. Explaining further, he says, “Till 2015-16, the internet had not reached to the last mile space in any sector. Online search, ordering, payments, tracking and delivery were not as smooth as of today. However, Ola, Uber, Swiggy and other e-commerce portals brought a revolution in the online payment system and have made it very convenient for users and last-mile operators. Online businesses are also taking good efforts on their last mile employees for reading maps and handling deliveries. Till last a few years, parking operators did not have smartphones with internet connectivity, but now they have. Users and operators were ready, so we felt this is the right time to launch the business.”

India had the world’s second-largest internet population of around 483 million users in 2018, and, of these, 390 million users accessed the internet via their mobile phones. As per a report, India will have over 760 million smartphone users in 2021.

Mobile-phone based parking apps have already been running in the developed markets such as the USA and Europe, but challenges for Park+ will be unique and tough considering the rapidly concentrating population, unplanned structures, and scarcity and skyrocketing prices of lands in cities. Expansion of cities in the western world have been well planned, and vehicle parking has been an integral part of the design of the new cities and the development of old cities. With the growing urbanisation, India is likely to have over 500 million people living in cities by 2030.

Considering the challenges for finding and booking parking space in India, the sweet spot for the Park+ is to help users to find and book parking spaces more conveniently and parking operators to utilise parking spaces more optimally.

“Since there is a minimal scope to build new infrastructure to make parking sites, we focus on to make these parking spaces available more efficiently. For instance, on weekdays, parking space is fully occupied in corporate parks, but malls, hotels and shopping complexes are less crowded, so are their parking sites. This scenario is vice versa on weekends. If a corporate park is near to a mall, the former can use the parking site of the latter on weekdays; the same can be done vice versa on weekends. That is how parking space can be used effectively, and operators’ revenue can go up,” explains Lakhotia.

Though as now of Park+ is offering its services in major cities, it sees opportunities in Tier -2 as well. Residents in metro cities are still reluctant to buy a car owing parking and traffic issues and opt for the shared mobility but growing middle-class incomes pushing car sales in Tier-2 cities. “What parking-related issues we are facing in the Tier-1 cities, eventually we will face the same in Tier-2 in future. So, we also see big business opportunities in Tier-2 cities in the country,” predicts Lakhotia.

Park+ will also explore possibilities to tie up with city corporations which operate parking sites in the cities. “We are looking for such tie-ups. It is just a matter of time when we can have to tie up with municipal corporations.”

Apart from the core service, Park+ is also offering services for insurance, pollution control certificate, RTO service, and information on traffic rules and fuel prices. The company now plans to widen its service offering with vehicle services, maintenance, washing and others. “Some of these services will be provided by third parties, while some services we will provide to the customer directly,” adds Lakhotia.

The company will also explore the option to have tie-ups with OEs to provide the Park+ inbuilt services in their vehicles. “We will try to make available our services to OEs as the business scales up.”

Lakhotia has spent more than ten years building significant size internet businesses. He is ex-Paytm, Tokopedia and Makemytrip and played a critical role in scaling them to multi-billion dollar companies. His experience with the internet business is helping him to build his own business. “Paytm is a digital platform which is being used by masses in India. It is being used by auto drivers, tea sellers, literally by everyone. The distribution of Paytm is available everywhere for both users and merchants in both urban and rural areas. When we started the business, we never thought we would go that big. It does not matter how great your product is; it should work on all devices and networks. The product should win the trust of users since you are handling their money. Transparency is must in internet businesses,” says Lakhotia.

Today, the company has around two lakh subscribers, and Lakhotia expects the subscriber number will reach two million by 2021. The company adds 40,000 cars to the network every month, and 300,000 cars have their RFID tags. So far, the company has set up 800 sites in India. “Currently, we have around 18,000 real-time slots available, and overall, we have 60,000 slots.”

Talking on challenges, Lakhotia says Park+ is a pioneer in the business, and the challenges are new and unpredictable. “Since it is a real-time business, the challenge is how to deliver the services in the expected time. Also, this is a low-ticket business; we will have to make sure it will work smoothly.” (MT)

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Two-wheeler and commercial vehicles major Eicher Motors has reported its record financial results for FY2025.

For the quarter ending 31 March 2025, Eicher Motors reported its highest-ever quarterly revenue from operations at INR 52.41 billion, marking a 23.1 percent increase over the same period last year. Quarterly EBITDA rose 11.4 percent to INR 12.58 billion, while net profit surged 27.3 percent to INR 13.62 billion.

Royal Enfield registered its highest-ever quarterly sales during Q4, with 280,801 motorcycles sold, up 23.2 percent YoY.

For fiscal 2025, Eicher Motors reported revenue of INR 188 billion, a 14.1 percent increase over FY2024, EBITDA rose 8.9 percent to INR 47.12 billion, while PAT stood at INR 47.34 billion, up 18.3 percent YoY.

The company also reported that Royal Enfield crossed the 1 million mark in annual sales for the first time in its history, clocking 1,002,893 units, up 10 percent YoY. Domestic sales grew 8.1 percent to 902,757 units, while exports surged 29.7 percent to 100,136 units.

The iconic brand launched six new motorcycles during the year, including the Guerrilla 450, Bear 650, Classic 650, Goan Classic 350, the 2024 Classic 350 (featuring a Factory Custom Programme) and the Scram 440.

Royal Enfield also made its debut in electric mobility with Flying Flea, a city+ EV brand inspired by the 1940s model of the same name. The new EV line-up is set to launch its first product by 2026, blending classic aesthetics with cutting-edge technology.

To strengthen its international footprint, Royal Enfield inaugurated its first fully owned CKD (completely knocked down) assembly plant in Thailand and announced a second CKD unit in Brazil aimed at serving the LATAM region. It also expanded operations in Bangladesh with a new manufacturing facility and flagship showroom.

Eicher Motors’ commercial vehicle arm, VECV, also posted a strong performance in a flat market. It reported annual revenue of INR 235.48 billion, up 7.7 percent from the previous year. PAT rose 57 percent to INR 12.86 billion, while EBITDA stood at INR 20.23 billion. The company sold 90,000 vehicles in FY2025, a 5.4 percent YoY growth.

VECV introduced the Eicher Pro X range – electric small commercial trucks assembled on an all-woman assembly line – as part of its push for sustainability and inclusivity. Volvo Trucks, part of the joint venture, launched India’s first FM Road Train for efficient long-haul logistics and also began deliveries of LNG-powered trucks.

Siddhartha Lal, Chairman, Eicher Motors, said, “We have had a remarkable year at EML and have reported exceptional performance across both Royal Enfield and VE Commercial Vehicles. In the motorcycle business, the middleweight segment saw a lot of action from our peers. Remaining unfazed and maintaining focus on our strategic goals and community, Royal Enfield stood head and shoulders above everyone else to sell one million motorcycles annually, for the first time in its history. With several global award winning and category defining motorcycles now sitting within the Royal Enfield portfolio, we are super excited and confident about the possibilities that lie ahead of us. At VECV also we saw record-breaking volumes and a strong performance despite the prevailing challenging market conditions. What excites me the most is that we have done it all quietly, consistently and with a sense of purpose. We balanced creativity with rigour, legacy and progress in a way that’s unique to our company and I genuinely believe we are just getting started.”

B Govindarajan, MD, Eicher Motors and CEO, Royal Enfield, said, “FY25 was an incredible year for Eicher Motors and Royal Enfield. We delivered our best-ever financial performance and despite a slow start to the year, we built strong momentum in the second half, launching six new motorcycles, achieving a record festive season and seeing healthy demand across all our products. We also strengthened our international footprint, with consolidated exports surging 29.7 percent to 100,136 units and opened new CKD operations. We also marked our entry into electric mobility with Flying Flea, our city+ EV brand that brings together timeless design and modern tech. It’s been a year of growth, resilience and execution and we are excited for what lies ahead.”

Vinod Aggarwal, MD & CEO, VE Commercial Vehicles, said, “VECV continued to outperform a nearly flat industry in FY2025, with vehicle sales growing 6 percent to 90,161 units. Our company closed the year as a market leader in the Indian 5-18.5T Light and Medium Duty truck segment and recorded its highest ever deliveries across key business verticals.”

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Tata Motors Group Chief Financial Officer PB Balaji outlined a bullish roadmap for the company’s growth trajectory, citing strong performance recovery, a vibrant product pipeline and a sharp focus on electric mobility and international market expansion.

Balaji struck an optimistic note on Tata Motors' future, calling out sustained momentum across all three verticals – Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Tata Commercial Vehicles and Tata Passenger Vehicles (PV).

"We are entering FY26 with a strong balance sheet and a clear growth agenda across all businesses,” Balaji said, underscoring that the Group is now structurally and strategically aligned for the next phase of expansion.

He emphasised that Tata Motors’ growth will be ‘product-led,’ particularly in the passenger vehicle segment. New launches – especially in the SUV and EV space – have been pivotal in reinforcing Tata’s market positioning.

In the commercial vehicles segment, Tata is banking on market recovery and improved fleet utilisation. “The freight cycle is showing signs of improvement, and we expect to benefit as replacement demand kicks in,” he noted.

On electric vehicles, Balaji reaffirmed Tata’s dominant stance in the Indian EV market and outlined plans to extend its lead. “The EV strategy is working. We’ve proven the thesis. The next steps will be about scale and ecosystem development,” he said. He highlighted Tata’s ambition to transition from simply selling EVs to enabling an entire EV ecosystem – touching on charging infrastructure, localisation of components and battery recycling as critical next steps.

JLR's transformation was another highlight of Balaji’s outlook. The British marque has returned to healthy margins and is now positioned to scale profitably, thanks to a focused approach on premiumisation, disciplined capital allocation and electric architecture development. “JLR has turned a corner—it’s about consolidating gains and investing in future-ready platforms,” he stated.

In addition, Tata Motors is eyeing growth outside India, particularly in the ASEAN and African regions. “We’ll continue to invest in markets where we see sustainable long-term potential,” he said.

Balaji also stressed Tata Motors' disciplined capital deployment approach, indicating that future investments would be ‘self-funded through strong cash flows.’ Debt reduction remains a high priority, even as CAPEX is strategically allocated.

Calling the next two years ‘defining’ for Tata Motors, Balaji summed up the strategy, “The next 24 months are defining for us as a group across the three businesses. We have tailwinds, we have the execution muscle and we are focused. Now is the time to accelerate.”

Financial Performance

Tata Motors reported record consolidated revenues of INR 4,396 billion for FY2025, marking a 1.3 percent YoY growth. However, net profit declined by 11.4 percent to INR 278 billion, impacted by margin pressures across key business segments.

Significantly, the Tata Motors Group turned net auto cash positive during the fiscal, closing FY2025 with a net cash balance of INRR 10 billion – a key milestone in the company's financial turnaround strategy.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) recorded Q4 FY25 revenues of GBP 7.7 billion, a decline of 1.7 percent YoY.

In the domestic commercial vehicles (CV) segment, wholesale volumes stood at 99,600 units in Q4 FY25, down 4.8 percent YoY. Exports, however, surged 29.4 percent YoY to 5,900 units. Total CV revenue declined marginally by 0.5 percent YoY to INR 215 billion, mainly due to lower volumes. Nevertheless, the business delivered improved profitability, with EBITDA and EBIT margins rising to 12.2 percent (up 20 bps YoY) and 9.7 percent, respectively – driven by better realisations.

In the passenger vehicles (PV) segment, Q4 volumes were at 147,000 units, down 5.5 percent YoY. Revenue fell 13.1 percent YoY to INR 125 billion. The EBIT margin came in at 1.6 percent, impacted by both lower volumes and realisations. However, this was partially offset by cost optimisation measures and government incentives.

The company also highlighted profitability in its core and electric PV portfolios. The internal combustion engine (ICE) PV business delivered an EBITDA margin of 8.2 percent in Q4, while the electric vehicle (EV) business remained EBITDA positive at 6.5 percent.

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Akio Toyoda, Chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), has been honoured with the 2025 Industry Leadership Award by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Foundation. The recognition was presented at the 27th Annual SAE Foundation Celebration held in Pontiac, Michigan, an event that pays tribute to industry leaders whose careers have inspired future generations of innovators.

Toyoda was recognised for his visionary leadership and transformative impact on the global mobility landscape. Serving as President and CEO of TMC from 2009 to 2023, he played a pivotal role in steering the company through a dynamic period of technological evolution. As Chairman, he continues to champion innovation, sustainability, and the development of a future-ready workforce.

In honour of Toyoda’s recognition, Toyota Motor North America announced a USD 1 million donation to support SAE’s A World in Motion (AWIM) program. The initiative introduces students to STEM education through hands-on experiences that develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills essential for the mobility industry.

This contribution complements the efforts of the Toyota USA Foundation’s Driving Possibilities initiative, which aims to enhance STEM learning and career readiness in Pre-K through 12th-grade schools across the U.S. Together, the AWIM and Driving Possibilities programs will serve nearly 24,000 students and provide STEM education training to approximately 700 teachers in key communities.

“Toyoda’s passion for driving excellence extends beyond the automotive industry. His commitment to education and Toyota’s investment in STEM programs like AWIM will leave a lasting impact on students and future engineers,” said Jamie Ferguson, Executive Director of the SAE Foundation & STEM Learning.

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The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) today released its April 2025 vehicle retail data, revealing a moderate overall growth of 3 percent YoY.

The two-wheeler segment emerged as the primary growth driver, registering a 2.25 percent increase in retail sales compared to April 2024 and a significant 11.84 percent MoM growth. FADA attributes this positive momentum to strong rural demand. However, the sector continues to face headwinds in the form of high financing costs and the pricing impact of OBD-2B emission norms.

The tractor segment demonstrated robust growth, with a 7.5 percent increase in retail sales year-on-year. This strong performance likely reflects the positive sentiment stemming from a strong Rabi harvest, which typically boosts agricultural activity and consequently, tractor demand.

In contrast to the strong performance of two-wheelers and tractors, the passenger vehicle segment experienced a modest 1.55 percent YoY growth, while witnessing a slight dip of 0.19 percent on MoM basis. The auto retail body attributes that deep discounts are prevalent in the market and while the demand for SUVs remains strong, the entry-level segment continues to exhibit sluggishness. FADA also noted that the PV inventory levels are currently around 50 days, significantly higher than their advocated norm of 21 days.

The commercial vehicle segment faced a contraction, with retail sales declining by 1.05 percent YoY and 4.44 percent on MoM basis. FADA suggests that recent price hikes by OEMs and flat freight rates are negatively impacting sales. Within the CV segment, the Small Commercial Vehicle category saw weak demand, while the bus segment remains steady.

Looking ahead to May 2025, FADA anticipates a positive outlook, primarily driven by the strong conclusion of the Rabi harvest. The expectation of a normal monsoon further strengthens this positive sentiment, suggesting continued momentum in rural demand which could positively influence vehicle sales across various segments.

In a significant development, FADA has begun releasing fuel-wise vehicle retail market share data across all key categories. This new initiative aims to provide stakeholders with a granular understanding of evolving energy preferences and the impact of regulatory influences on India's automotive ecosystem.

C S Vigneshwar, President, FADA, said, “The new financial year began on a measured note as overall retails in April managed to grow by 3 percent YoY. All categories except CV closed in the green, with 2W, 3W, PV and Trac up 2.25 percent, 24.5 percent, 1.5 percent and 7.5 percent respectively, while CVs declined by 1 percent. With the tariff war paused, stock markets staged a sharp pullback – alleviating investor concerns – and customers thus leveraged Chaitra Navratri, Akshay Tritiya, Bengali New Year, Baisakhi and Vishu to complete purchases, helping April end on a positive note.”

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