Comparative Financial and Strategic Analysis of Selected Companies in the Indian Auto (Four-Wheeler) Sector

The Indian four-wheeler automobile sector is among the largest in the world and is being reshaped by sport utility vehicle (SUV) demand, electrification, connected technologies and tighter regulation. This study presents a comparative financial and strategic analysis of five leading listed companies: Maruti Suzuki India Limited, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, Hyundai Motor India Limited, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Ashok Leyland Limited. A descriptive, secondary-data research design was adopted. Company reports, investor presentations, exchange filings, industry publications and government sources were used to build company profiles and to compute and compare revenue, net profit, market capitalisation, earnings per share, return on equity, return on capital employed, debt–equity ratio, current ratio, net profit margin and five-year passenger vehicle market share. Strategic tools, namely PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces and SWOT analysis, were used to interpret the financial evidence. The results show that Maruti Suzuki combines market leadership, the highest market valuation among the five firms, negligible debt and a strong distribution network, although its passenger vehicle share has eased from 47% to about 41% over five years. Mahindra & Mahindra records the largest revenue and net profit among the firms with comparable data and the fastest share gain, rising from 7% to 14%. Hyundai Motor India delivers the highest return on capital employed (38.4%) with very low leverage, while Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles leads electric mobility but shows weak liquidity and capital-efficiency indicators. Ashok Leyland is a commercial vehicle specialist with the highest leverage in the sample. The study concludes that scale, balance-sheet strength and portfolio fit with the SUV and electric vehicle transitions jointly explain competitive position, and it offers firm-specific and industry-level recommendations.