New Verticals Drive Growth For Auto Comp Companies In FY26

Emerging verticals such as defense, aerospace and premiumization drove growth for auto component manufacturers in FY26. Amidst the challenging macroeconomic environment, diversified focus helped companies in being resilient and protecting margins. 

Samvardhana Motherson International Limited is progressing confidently towards vision 2030 while navigating unforeseen challenges and pursuing long-term opportunities. “Our long-time focus on diversification helped us outperform the market. We continued to remain focused on improving capital efficiency while making strategic investments for future growth to support our customers. The improvement in the leverage ratio and a strong booked business of USD 96 billion reinforce our commitment to sustainable value creation,” said Vivek Chaand Sehgal, chairman, Motherson.

Annual revenue of the company crossed INR1.25 lakh crores,registering growth of 11 per cent year-on-year (YoY). Emerging businesses grew 50 per cent YoY. Consumer Electronics grew 7.5 times YoY and the company’s Aerospace vertical registered 40 per cent YoY growth. “Growth was driven by strong momentum in emerging businesses, complemented by resilient performance across core businesses,” Sehgal added.

Uno Minda closed FY26 with a 17 per cent top-line growth, reaching a normalized revenue milestone of INR 19,589 crore, accompanied by 24 per cent expansion in PAT. Despite these near-term cost and supply chain pressures, the auto comp maker’s diversified portfolio and rigid operational discipline protected profitability.

“Our long-term growth visibility remains anchored by landmark business wins recently, including sizable orders in our lighting, seating, Infotainment and sunroof verticals. By focusing on advanced technologies and expanding our market share across core product lines, we continue to drive operational efficiencies and deliver sustainable, profitable growth across both domestic and international markets,” said Sunil Bohra, CFO, Uno Minda Group.

Looking ahead in FY27, Uno Minda, alongside its ongoing capacity expansions, including EV powertrains and sunroofs, are slated for commercial production or ramp-up. “By aligning our deep localization with tailwinds in premiumization, safety, and electrification, we are structurally expanding our kit value per vehicle and solidifying our manufacturing leadership,” said Ravi Mehra, MD, Uno Minda Group.

UNO Minda is actively curating products with Gen Z in mind, recognizing them as the future drivers of demand. Gen Z’s preference for accessorizing vehicles—adding alloy wheels, cameras, chargers, and holders—has pushed the company to align with OEMs and introduce these features directly at the manufacturing stage. This trend has also boosted UNO Minda’s aftermarket business, which now contributes about INR 1,500 crore to its INR 25,000 crore revenue. The aftermarket is not only growing domestically but also expanding globally.

Driven by a combination of new business initiatives and M&A over the past three years, Bharat Forge Limited (BFL) is now an engineering conglomerate entrenched across processes, customers and segments. The aerospace business is part of the company’s industrial exports and is now almost 26 per cent of the last quarter’s non-a exports. It is the second largest contributor to industrial exports now. “This segment has seen multiple new business wins, both across jet engine structure, landing systems from global OEMs. We were recently selected by an aerospace OEM as their first supplier from India for any critical components,” said Amit Kalyani, vice-chairman and Joint MD of BFL.

BFL ended the year with revenues of INR 16,812 crore and EBITDA of INR 2,921 crore, which was a growth of 11 per cent in revenue and about 6 per cent in EBITDA. During the year, the company also secured new businesses for INR 4,814 crore across all key businesses, which includes the traditional business of INR 1,210 crore, defence INR 2,816 crore.

“On the defense front, our business is spread well beyond artillery and vehicles to include small arms, naval solutions and a wide variety of unmanned platforms, both sea and air.

The recent order wins are a testament to the progress made here with an order book of close to INR11,000 crore, the next three, four years, we’ll see stable revenue accretion in these sectors. In parallel, we are also focusing on expanding our product portfolio and participating in new programs to build a robust and scalable revenue pipeline over the medium to long term. I particularly see new opportunities in Europe for our defense business,” added Kalyani.

The Indian auto component industry is on a massive growth trajectory, projected to reach $200 billion by 2030, according to a McKinsey report. Driven by global supply chain diversification and a boom in domestic EV sales, local companies are rapidly scaling their capabilities in electronics, software-first features, and advanced manufacturing.