Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd recorded its first annual revenue decline in five years and an operating loss in FY26, hit by more than $1 billion in additional costs from US tariffs and a cyberattack at its British luxury car brand Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).
According to the company’s results released on 14 May, Tata Motors PV’s full-year revenue fell 8% to ₹3.35 trillion on the back of a 23% decline in volumes at JLR to 308,000 units. The impact of the cyberattack in September and higher US tariffs on JLR imports led to an operating loss of ₹1,377 crore from a profit of ₹19,394 crore in FY25.
The company’s full-year net profit surged 193% to ₹82,645 crore, bolstered by a one-time exceptional gain of ₹82,616 crore following the demerger of its commercial vehicle unit.
While JLR did not specify the exact loss from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Tata Group chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran noted during last year’s annual general meeting that the tariff hikes cost the company about £600 million ($808 million). In February, the company reported that the cyberattack cost it over £260 million ($350 million) after operations were disrupted at its manufacturing plants across the UK and Europe.
Richard Molyneux, chief financial officer at JLR, said during a press conference that it had been a challenging year for JLR but the company’s performance remained resilient in all quarters. JLR accounts for more than 75% of the company’s profits. “Production returned to normal following the cyber incident… [there was a] decrease in profitability primarily due to the cyber incident, the continuing impact of US tariffs, planned reduced Jaguar volumes, and challenging market conditions in China” he added.
While JLR is sticking to its £18-billion investment plan for FY24-FY29, management noted it may reprioritise its EV strategy across different markets following a broader industry trend of scaling back electric vehicle investments.
To a question about how to company views its EV strategy, he said, “I think there is inevitably going to be a little bit of a change in prioritisation of that as we know globally, and particularly for the US market, we need to keep ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles in our portfolio for longer… So there might be a bit of change in terms of exactly how we spend that money.”
In the past six months, automakers including Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, and Honda have written off over $60 billion in investments after EV adoption failed to meet their initial expectations.
FY26 saw Jaguar Land Rover appoint a new chief executive, PB Balaji, who took over in November after the exit of Adrian Mardell. Since taking over, Balaji has had to contend with challenges such as declining sales in China, the cyberattack, and the increased US tariffs.
“We recovered well in the fourth quarter as production returned to normal levels, demonstrating the commitment of our people, suppliers and retail partners,” Balaji said about the results on Thursday.
“As we look ahead into FY27, we are focused on driving growth through our well-differentiated house of brands and reducing our breakeven volumes, while we launch a slew of exciting products starting with the New Range Rover Electric, the unveiling of the first of our EMA (electrified modular architecture) products and the eagerly awaited new Jaguar.”
Domestic business firing on all cylinders
While troubles at JLR weighed on Tata Motors, it masked the growth at its domestic business, which saw a 15% growth in sales to 640,000 units, making it India’s third-largest passenger-vehicle firm.
Tata Motors PV’s standalone results, which exclude JLR’s numbers, saw revenue surge by 17% to ₹57,859 crore and operating profit increase 149% to ₹3,839 crore.
This was in line with the performance of its rivals Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra and Mahindra. Maruti’s consolidated FY26 revenues rose 20% to ₹1.83 trillion, while net profit inched up 1% to ₹14,679 crore. Mahindra’s revenue surged 26% year-on-year to ₹1.98 trillion, while net profit jumped 32% to ₹18,621 crore.
Hyundai saw its consolidated net profit decline 4% to ₹5,432 crore and recorded 2% growth in annual revenue to ₹70,763 crore.
Shailesh Chandra, managing director and chief executive at Tata Motors PV, said during the post results press conference, “We are exiting the year with a strong momentum. The performance this year has been the result of many foundational actions that we had been taking over the past 18 to 24 months as well as agile and disciplined execution, especially after GST 2.0. In the coming year, we are looking at delivering industry-leading growth.”
Chandra noted that the company aggressively upgraded its servicing capabilities to keep pace with rising consumer demand as its network and business operations expanded. “Nearly 1,600 bays have been added. And that has really eased out the stress that we had in terms of service capacity,” Chandra said.
The company highlighted that commodity cost inflation remains a major challenge, intensifying cost-reduction efforts within the company. Chandra expects rising fuel prices and inflation to drive EV momentum—a trend that favors the company as the current market leader.
Tata Motors PV results were released after trading hours. Earlier, its stock rose 0.3% as against a 0.6% gain in Nifty Auto.
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