Growing penetration of EVs drives Wheels India’s air
suspension business
Chennai July 1, 2026: The strong double-digit growth in
its air suspension business in FY26 was driven by higher content per vehicle,
growing intercity transport, AC sleeper coaches, upgradation of fleet by STUs
(state transport undertakings) and growing penetration of EVs, Srivats Ram,
Chairman and Managing Director, Wheels India Ltd told the shareholders via a
Video Conference at the company’s 67th Annual General Meeting.
“We continue to invest in the alloy wheels segment and
will strive for higher volumes in the coming years”, Srivats said on the prospects in the alloy wheels segment.
Bullish on Wind Mill business
Srivats was positive of growth in the component
businesses catering to the wind mill industry this year. He said that business
grew by 14% last year driven by new businesses from the offshore segment. “We
are likely to see growth both in India and overseas markets. In addition, we
continue to invest in and grow the business of machining of large castings for
this sector”, he said.
Momentum to continue in Car Wheels
The company’s subsidiary WIL Car Wheels Ltd saw decent
growth and improved its profitability on the basis of increased volumes, higher
capacity utilization and operational cost improvements. He said that this is
likely to continue this year.
He struck a note of caution citing inflation concerns on
commodity prices due to the West Asia crisis but was hopeful of the prices
stablizing as the year progressed.
Answering
shareholder queries, Srivats said that the company is planning a CapEx of
around Rs. 300crores this year that will go towards Tractor, Wind Mill,
Hydraulic Cylinders and Air Suspension segments.
He
said that the company would like to grow its construction equipment and agri
tractor businesses globally. “The company has a leadership position in
construction equipment segment and we would like to achieve that in the agri
tractor segment as well globally”, he said.
Answering
another shareholder’s question on the growth strategy, Srivats said, “We are
looking to ramp up machining of large castings. The cast aluminum business is
on a low base currently and we have been able to get new businesses from a
number of Indian OEMs. We should be able to ramp up this business this year. Hydraulic
Cylinder is a small business at the moment but has the potential to grow quite
a bit and we are looking at expanding this business. Air Suspension has grown
well last year and we are hopeful of continuing the growth momentum in this
segment.”
On
new products, he said that the company had introduced around 250 new products.
On
overall prospects, he said he was confident of growing the business this year.
Wheels India registered a Net Profit of Rs. 139crores
last year on Revenues of Rs. 5124crores.
Wheels
India is a leading manufacturer of wheels for trucks, agricultural tractors,
passenger vehicles and construction equipment; air suspension systems for
trucks and buses, and industrial components for the construction and windmill
industry with manufacturing plants in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh.
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