Eicher Motors

Eicher Motors Limited, the Indian company, is a commercial vehicle manufacturer in India. It traces its origins to the Goodearth Company, established in 1948 to sell and service imported tractors in India. In 1958, Eicher Tractor Corporation of India was established to manufacture tractors in India by Goodearth Company in collaboration with Eicher Tractors of Germany.^[3] The company manufactured its first indigenous tractor in 1959, and a year later changed its name to Eicher Tractors India Ltd.^[4]

Since 1965, Eicher in India has been completely owned by Indian shareholders. The German Eicher tractor was partly owned by Massey Ferguson from 1970, when they bought 30%. Massey Ferguson bought out the German company in 1973.^[5]

In 2005, Eicher Motors Ltd sold their tractors and engines business to TAFE Tractors (Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd) of Chennai, the Indian licensee of Massey Ferguson tractors.^[6]

In October 1982, a collaboration agreement with Mitsubishi for the manufacture of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) was signed in Tokyo and in the same period the incorporation of Eicher Motors Limited also took place. LCVs were sold under the "Eicher Mitsubishi" brand. In February 1990, Eicher Goodearth bought 26% stake in Enfield India Ltd and by 1993 Eicher acquired a majority stake (60% equity shareholding) in Royal Enfield India.

In July 2008, Eicher Motors Limited (EML) and Volvo Group's formed a 50:50 joint venture called VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) which designs, manufactures and markets commercial vehicles, engineering components and provides engineering design.^[7]

At present, Volvo Group owns 45.6% of VECV,^[8] while Eicher Motors holds the remaining 54.4%.^[9] In 2020, VECV bought Volvo Buses India operations for ₹100 crore.^[10]

In 2012, Eicher Motors started a joint venture with American company Polaris Industries called Eicher Polaris to make personal utility vehicles, starting with Eicher Polaris Multix in 2015. This joint venture company ceased operations in 2018.^[11]

The Eicher Group has business interests in design and development, manufacturing, and local and international marketing of trucks, buses, motorcycles, automotive gears, and components.

• Eicher Lorge/Small-Size Tempo Trucks
• Eicher Buses/Lorge/Small-Size Vans
• Volvo Lorge/Small-Size Tempo Trucks
• Volvo Lorge/Small-Size Buses and Vans
• Royal Enfield Motorcycles

In the end of 2025 VE Commercial Vehicles unveiled their ProX line up of new small trucks under Eicher Trucks and Buses brand. The line-up was built from ground up because VECV never had small commercial trucks in any brand. First electric variants were launched with 32 and 40kwh lithium iron phosphate battery with 107hp and 250km range. Later diesel versions were launched with their all new E449 X2 engine a 4-cylinder 2 liter coupled with 5 Speed transmission with output of 80hp and 230nm of torque. The line-up has payload capacity of 1.3 to 1.8 tons with two cargo bed length options 9.8 and 10.8ft. The cabin has sitting capacity of driver plus two pax and built with Indian and European Safety Standards.^[14]