From red to black: India's top automakers see EV business turning around

Mint

2 days ago

New Delhi: After pumping in money for several years, Indian automotive manufacturing companies are finally beginning to see their electric vehicle (EV) businesses moving towards profitability.
The EV business of top car makers Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) are already operationally profitable–a crucial milestone towards full profitability–even as Hyundai Motor India said its flagship EV is per-unit profitable. These three companies account for nearly two-thirds of the electric car market.
On the other hand, two-wheeler majors Bajaj Auto Ltd, Hero MotoCorp, Ather Energy and Ola Electric Ltd are hopeful of turning operationally profitable soon. Achieving net profit, however, is some distance away for both segments.
The trend comes on the back of strong growth in sales of EVs in FY25. Even as electric passenger vehicle sales rose 18% to 107,645 units in the fiscal year, electric two-wheeler sales grew 21% to 1.14 million units in the same period, as per Vahan portal data.
Also read | New Delhi is promoting hybrid cars on par with electric, upsetting EV makers
Analysts said policy incentives and a reduction in the cost of EV production are helping their profitability push.
'Reduction in import duties on key materials required to build EV components, increased localization by OEMs, and policy interventions like PLI and PM e-drive scheme are helping OEMs move towards EV profitability," Shridhar Kallani, research analyst for auto at Axis Securities, said. 'The increasing demand from consumers is also leading to a volume push, thereby helping the OEMs to grow the market and their profitability."
Operations profitable
Tata Motors, India's third largest automaker, reported Ebitda (earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization) margin of 1.2% in FY25, a move into the black from -7.1% in FY24.
'In the EV segment, we became one of the few global manufacturers to achieve positive Ebitda (earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization) on the back of a higher level of localisation, aggressive cost reduction, and securing PLI benefits," Shailesh Chandra, managing director at Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Limited and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited, said in his annual letter to shareholders.
Likewise, close rival M&M reported Ebitda-positive EV sales, despite entering the segment late. And Hyundai reported positive Ebitda on its flagship Creta Electric at the unit level, minus launch-related expenses.
M&M launched two EVs in the January-March period–BE 6 & XEV 9e–while Hyundai launched the Creta Electric in January. These new launches are driving the EV sales of the two companies, which were at 8,182 units and 2,410 units, respectively, during FY25, per data from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (Fada).
Read this | EVs hit with falling resale value as consumer demand cools
'MEAL (Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd) as a company was Ebitda positive in its first quarter of operation," Rajesh Jejurikar, executive director and CEO-auto and farm sectors, said during the post Q4 results earnings call on 5 May. 'It made a ₹10-crore Ebitda profit without accruing any PLI (production-linked incentive)."
Meanwhile, K.S. Hariharan, head of investor relations at Hyundai Motor India, said during the company earnings call on 16 May, 'If you exclude the launch-related marketing expenses and the test drive discounts, we are margin positive on Creta EV."
However, there is some scepticism about them matching profits of conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles anytime soon.
Rahul Bharti, senior executive officer, corporate affairs at India's top conventional car maker Maruti Suzuki, said during the company's Q3 earnings call on 29 January that it will take a long time for EVs to match ICE's profitability.
'If the profit of an EV was equal to that of an ICE, why would the government support so much at the Centre and the state level?" Bharti noted during the call with analysts. 'The very fact that there is a drastic reduction in GST, and so many subsidies at different levels on demand side and supply side, means that there is a difference."
Profit on two-wheels
India's top two wheeler players, too, are also chalking out a clear path to profitability. Bajaj Auto Ltd and Hero MotoCorp Ltd expect to turn their EV business Ebitda profitable in the next 24 months. Meanwhile, Ather Energy and Ola Electric Ltd remain hopeful that they will soon touch the break even point.
Ola Electric Mobility Ltd, the country's largest electric two-wheeler company, said it is very close to breaking even. Ola had guided for reaching the milestone in the current quarter, but it's now likely to reach it in the July to September period amid slowing sales.
'What we had shared is that we expect to get to auto segment Ebitda positive within some time in Q1…we are more or less on track on that," Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and managing director at Ola Electric, said, adding that its auto segment will likely turn Ebitda positive sometime in June or July.
The Ebitda margin was -78.6% in Q4 of FY25. As per the management, Ola will need 25,000 monthly sales to reach the breakeven point. In five months of 2025 so far, it has sold on average 19,000 vehicles per month, as per Vahan portal data.
Also read | EV industry, government struggle to find alternatives as China throttles rare earth magnet supply
Its Bengaluru-based peer Ather Energy Ltd is also confident about its path to profitability as its Ebitda margin improved to -23% in FY25 from -42% in the year-ago period.
'Profitability is the function of revenue and cost," Ravneet Phokela, chief business officer at Ather, told Mint. 'As we increase our sales through network expansion and reduce cost through localisation, there is a clear path to profitability."
The country's largest conventional two-wheeler seller, Hero MotoCorp, is also guiding for profitability of its EV business by 2027 on the back of increasing sales, reducing cost and realising PLI benefits.
'What will really make this business profitable is the scale-up (of EV business), the bill of material cost reduction through localization, and PLI benefit realization," Vivek Anand, the company's chief financial officer said during the post results earnings call on 14 May.
Hero MotoCorp's Ebitda margin from EVs improved from -155% in FY24 to -95% in FY25. 'At 25,000-30,000 levels of volume per month, we hope that this will break even, which in our view is a couple of years away," Anand added. The company sold about 4,000 vehicles on average every month in the financial year 2025.
And read | Automakers rush to PMO, commerce ministry as Chinese magnet crisis set to spread beyond EVs, threatens production cuts
Bajaj Auto Ltd also noted during its call with analysts that it is very close to breaking even for its e-two-wheeler business. For its combined two-wheeler and three-wheeler electric business, it had broken even on the Ebitda level in the July-September quarter (Q2 of FY25).
'At a unit economics level, clearly with PLI and PLI-certified models, we now have a line of sight to getting very close to an Ebitda break-even, relative to what was a very significant loss 12-15 months ago," said Dinesh Thapar, CFO at Bajaj Auto.
The Nifty Auto index has gained 0.8% in 2025, lagging the Nifty 50's 4.2% rise during the same period.