Ashok Leyland to invest up to ₹500 crore in battery pack manufacturing unit; shares fall

The company held the groundbreaking ceremony for the new battery pack manufacturing facility at Pillaipakkam near Chennai, Ashok Leyland said in a regulatory filing dated Wednesday.

The project would incur an investment of ₹400-500 crore and is part of the Hinduja Group's investments under an earlier Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in September 2025, it said.

Ashok Leyland said its new battery pack manufacturing facility at Pillaipakkam represents a strategic step in building a robust EV ecosystem and will help localise EV battery pack production.

The project aligns closely with Tamil Nadu's Electric Vehicle Policy 2023, the National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage, and India's vision of achieving net-zero emissions by 2070, the company said.

What the management said

Commenting on the development, Dheeraj Hinduja, Executive Chairman of Ashok Leyland, said: “Ashok Leyland, along with its subsidiary, Switch Mobility, have already developed a vast range of electric Commercial Vehicles, and have taken a lead position in the EV market. The groundbreaking of the new battery pack manufacturing facility marks an important step in our electric mobility journey and reinforces our commitment to building a strong domestic EV ecosystem.”

Shenu Agarwal, MD & CEO of Ashok Leyland, stated that the facility will enable the firm to build advanced battery pack solutions with greater efficiency, safety and reliability while supporting the battery supply chain localisation.

“It will also contribute to developing specialized talent and creating new opportunities in high-technology manufacturing within Tamil Nadu,” Agarwal added.

Ashok Leyland February 2026 update

The commercial auto maker posted a 24% year-on-year (YoY) increase in its total sales to 22,157 units in February 2026, compared to 17,903 units it logged in the same month last year.

Its domestic sales surged 28% YoY to 20,314 units for the month under review, as against 15,879 units in February 2025, Ashok Leyland said in a statement.

Its sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles in the domestic market stood at 13,264 units in Feb of the current year, marking a 31% YoY jump from 10,110 units in the year-ago month.

Ashok Leyland stock performance

Shares of the company declined as much as 3.68% to an intraday low of ₹177.87 per unit on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), as against the close of ₹184.66 in the previus session. The development was announced in the post-market hours on Wednesday.

At around 11:06 AM, the stock was trading 2..84% lower at ₹179.42 per equity share.

While the scrip hit a 52-week high of ₹215.42 apiece on February 11, 2026, it touched a year’s low of ₹95.93 on April 7, 2025.

Ashok Leyland has a total market capitalisation of ₹1.05 lakh crore, as of March 12, 2026, according to data on the NSE.