Tata Motors shares hit 52-week low; here's why

Shares of Tata Motors Ltd hit their 52-week low in intraday trade on Monday after the automaker reported a drop in cars and commercial vehicles wholesales in February.

Domestic wholesales of Tata Motors fell 9% year-on-year to 77,232 units in February 2025 compared with 84,834 units in the corresponding month last year. The Tata group company’s commercial vehicle wholesales declined 7% year-on-year to 32,533 units in February compared with 35,085 units in the year-ago month. India’s largest electric car maker’s EV wholesales sales fell 23% year-on-year to 5,343 units last month.

Retail sales of Tata Motors stood at 39,371 units in February, according to Vahan data. Homegrown rival Mahindra & Mahindra pipped Tata Motors and Hyundai Motor India to become India’s second-largest carmaker. Tata Motors’ EV registrations stood at 3,770 units. The company’s EV arm, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd, is seeing tough competition from SAIC Motor-backed JSW MG Motor India’s new EV MG Windsor. With the launch of Hyundai Motor India’s Creta EV in January, the domestic EV market has become further crowded.

Reacting to these developments, shares of Tata Motors fell 2.3% in intraday trade to hit a fresh 52-week low of ₹606.20 on the BSE, taking the automaker’s market cap to around ₹2.27 lakh crore. In comparison, broader benchmark indices were trading half a percent lower on Monday.

The recent decline in Tata Motors’ share price is also led by its British luxury subsidiary, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). Tata Motors, which gets around two-third of its revenue from British luxury carmaker JLR, is seeing some stress in China. Like other luxury carmakers, JLR witnessed slowdown in China where car retailers are getting into financial stress. “We do see stress in China at an industry level. The premium market is down 14% year-on-year from April to December 2024 and if you look at the JLR’s import business, we are doing much better. We have declined 5% in that business,” PB Balaji, chief financial officer, Tata Motors, said in a media conference call after the company’s third quarter earnings. “So far the performance of JLR compared to the rest of the industry is much better. As the retailers’ financial situation improves, we should see China getting to growth in the coming quarters,” said Balaji.

Balaji expects JLR’s volumes to improve in the fourth quarter, which is seasonally the strongest quarter, making JLR debt free. “We do see good volume uptake coming from the U.S., and the U.K. and the rest of the world. We are well hedged to manage the China risk by getting volumes from other places,” he said.