TVS Motor Names Peyman Kargar as CEO Effective January 27, 2027, Succeeding KN Radhakrishnan

TVS Motor Company has appointed Peyman Kargar as its Director and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 27, 2027, ending an 18-year run by K. N. Radhakrishnan at the helm of India’s third-largest two-wheeler maker. Kargar, who currently heads the company’s international business, will serve a five-year term as a whole-time director and key managerial personnel. Radhakrishnan will continue as CEO during the five-month transition and then move to a non-executive director role until TVS Motor’s Annual General Meeting scheduled for July 2027.

Peyman Kargar to Lead TVS Motor from January 2027

TVS Motor Company made the leadership transition public on August 28, 2026, through a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges. The appointment is for a five-year term beginning January 27, 2027, and Kargar will serve as a whole-time director, classified as a key managerial personnel under the Companies Act framework. He will be based out of TVS Motor’s Bengaluru office after taking charge.

The transition has been structured as a phased handover rather than a sudden switch. K. N. Radhakrishnan, widely known within the company as KNR, will continue as Director and CEO until January 27, 2027, providing a five-month window to ensure a seamless handover of operations. After stepping down from the executive role, Radhakrishnan will remain on the board as a Non-Executive Director until the company’s Annual General Meeting, which is scheduled for July 2027.

The appointment carries the endorsement of Sudarshan Venu, Chairman of TVS Motor Company. In an official statement, Venu described Kargar as “an accomplished global leader with profound industry experience, strategic vision and a strong understanding of customers and markets,” and noted that as President of International Business, Kargar had already made a meaningful contribution to the company’s overseas expansion. Radhakrishnan, in turn, said it had been a privilege to lead TVS Motor and expressed confidence that Kargar would lead the company with distinction.

The change is internally driven. Kargar is not an outsider; he joined TVS Motor in March 2025 to head its international business from Dubai, and he was promoted to the CEO-designate role just 17 months later. His elevation reflects the company’s bet that a globally tested automotive executive, who has already been running one of TVS Motor’s fastest-growing segments, can take the group into its next phase of premiumisation, electric mobility and developed-market expansion.

Inside TVS Motor Company: India’s Third-Largest Two-Wheeler Maker

TVS Motor Company is one of India’s largest manufacturers of two-wheelers and three-wheelers, listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE: 532343) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE: TVSMOTOR). The company traces its origin to 1979, when Sundaram Clayton, a TVS Group company, set up a plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, to manufacture mopeds. The first product, the TVS 50, rolled out in 1980 as India’s first two-seater moped. The company grew through a long technical collaboration with Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation, and after the partnership ended in 2001, TVS Motor went on to become an independent manufacturer.

The company’s portfolio today spans motorcycles (Apache, Ronin, Radeon, Sport, Star City+, Victor), scooters (Jupiter, Ntorq 125, Scooty Pep+, Zest), mopeds (XL100, TVS 50 legacy), three-wheelers (TVS King) and electric vehicles (iQube electric scooter). TVS Motor is also the Indian manufacturing partner for BMW Motorrad’s entry-level G 310 R and G 310 GS, which are produced at the Hosur plant. It acquired the British motorcycle brand Norton Motorcycles in 2020, marking its entry into the ultra-premium segment.

In FY26 (FY26), TVS Motor sold 5.9 million vehicles globally, with revenue growing nearly 30 percent year on year. The company’s Q1 FY27 results, the first quarter of the current financial year, showed revenue rising 33.5 percent year on year, with a sharp jump in net profit. International markets now contribute around 29 percent of total sales volumes, growing at about 33 percent, making overseas business the single biggest growth engine of the company. The growth is being driven by premium motorcycles, electric two-wheelers, and exports to Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

TVS Motor is part of the larger TVS Group, an Indian multinational conglomerate founded in 1911 by T. V. Sundram Iyengar in Madurai with India’s first bus service. The group today has more than 50 subsidiaries across automobiles, auto components, finance, supply chain solutions, education and electronics, with reported revenues around $8.5 billion and over 60,000 employees.

Who Is Peyman Kargar?

Peyman Kargar is a France-based automotive executive of Iranian origin, with more than three decades of experience spanning Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the London Business School and an engineering degree from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) de Lyon in France, where he studied mechanical engineering. He began his career in 1992 as an engineer at the UK-based Amjet Company.

The Renault-Nissan Years

The bulk of Kargar’s career has been inside the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, one of the world’s largest automotive groupings. He joined Renault Group in 1996 and held a series of progressively senior roles across engineering, quality, service excellence, aftersales and manufacturing.

At Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury vehicle brand, Kargar led the company’s full value chain from its headquarters in Yokohama and is credited with driving a 20 percent volume increase over three years, setting the business on a trajectory toward $1 billion in annual profit. At Nissan, he ran operations across more than 80 countries spanning Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, the Gulf states and South Africa. At Renault, he effectively established the new AMI region and built Renault’s market presence across more than 50 countries.

Leading TVS Motor’s International Push

Kargar joined TVS Motor in March 2025 as Head of International Business, based out of Dubai and reporting directly to K. N. Radhakrishnan. In just under 17 months in the role, he oversaw a significant scaling up of TVS Motor’s overseas operations. By the time of his elevation, international markets accounted for nearly 29 percent of TVS Motor’s sales volumes, growing at around 33 percent year on year, making it the company’s single fastest-growing segment.

His elevation to the CEO role is therefore a recognition of internal performance rather than an external search. Kargar will be relocating from Dubai to Bengaluru, where TVS Motor’s international business headquarters is located, after taking charge in January 2027.

The End of the K. N. Radhakrishnan Era

K. N. Radhakrishnan, often called KNR, is among the longest-serving chief executives in the Indian automobile industry. His association with the TVS Group spans more than four decades, beginning in 1984 (some accounts say 1986) when he joined Sundaram Clayton Limited, the group’s holding company, as a management trainee. He is a postgraduate in technology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

Radhakrishnan’s tenure coincides with TVS Motor’s transformation from a primarily India-focused, second-tier two-wheeler company into a globally competitive mobility player. Under his leadership, TVS Motor expanded aggressively into premium motorcycles (Apache, Ronin), built the iQube electric scooter as a credible challenger in the electric two-wheeler market, scaled exports and international operations, and partnered with BMW Motorrad to manufacture the G 310 R and G 310 GS at Hosur. In FY26, his last full financial year as CEO, TVS Motor posted record sales of 5.9 million vehicles and a 30 percent jump in revenue.

Venu Srinivasan, Chairman Emeritus of TVS Motor, has called Radhakrishnan one of the longest-serving CEOs in the Indian automobile industry, saying that when he took charge in 2008, the company was struggling, and over the next 18 years it transformed into arguably the world’s third-largest two-wheeler manufacturer by annual volume. The succession has been described within the company as continuity rather than disruption, given that Kargar has been managing a substantial portion of the business already.

Why the Leadership Change Now?

The timing of the transition reflects three converging priorities that the company wants to anchor firmly in its next decade of growth.

The first is premiumisation. TVS Motor has been steadily moving up the price ladder through bikes like the Apache RTX 300, the Ronin, and the Norton range, and is preparing to enter developed markets in Europe and North America where premium motorcycles command far higher margins than mass-market commuters. Kargar’s three decades of running premium and luxury brands at Renault, Nissan and Infiniti gives him direct experience in selling high-value vehicles in regulated, mature markets.

The second is electric mobility. The Indian two-wheeler market is at an inflection point, with the electric scooter segment growing rapidly and the iQube emerging as one of the top-selling electric two-wheelers in the country. Kargar has been tasked with sharpening TVS Motor’s focus on AI capabilities, technology leadership and customer centricity, areas he has explicitly named as priorities in his first statement after the appointment.

The third is global expansion. With international business already contributing nearly a third of volumes and growing at over 33 percent a year, the company needs a CEO whose experience is closely aligned with cross-border operations. Kargar’s track record of managing more than 80 countries for Nissan and 50 for Renault makes him uniquely suited to consolidate TVS Motor’s position in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, while building a credible presence in developed markets.

The transition has also been planned in a way that minimises operational risk. The five-month overlap until January 2027, followed by Radhakrishnan’s continuation as a non-executive director until the July 2027 AGM, ensures that institutional knowledge and continuity are preserved at the board level during the first critical quarters of the new CEO’s tenure.

The Sudarshan Venu Factor

The Peyman Kargar appointment is the second major leadership transition at TVS Motor in just over a year, and both reflect a deliberate succession plan drawn up by the Venu Srinivasan family, the promoters of the TVS Group. In August 2025, Sudarshan Venu, son of Venu Srinivasan, took over as Chairman and Managing Director of TVS Motor Company, replacing Sir Ralf Speth, the former head of Jaguar Land Rover, who stepped down after the AGM and continued as Chief Mentor.

Sudarshan Venu, 36, had already been a director on the TVS Motor board and is credited with the success of the TVS iQube electric scooter, which has become one of the top-selling electric two-wheelers in India. He also continues to lead TVS Holdings and other group companies, including TVS Credit Services, Home Credit India and TVS Emerald.

The family’s succession plan is anchored by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2024 between Venu Srinivasan, his wife Mallika Srinivasan (chairperson of TAFE), son Sudarshan Venu, and daughter Lakshmi Venu, to avoid overlapping interests across the group’s many businesses. Venu Srinivasan himself remains Chairman Emeritus of TVS Motor Company and a director on the board of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group.

The combination of a second-generation promoter as Chairman and a globally experienced operator as CEO marks a clear shift at TVS Motor: the family is moving from founder-led management to a more professional, globally benchmarked leadership model, while retaining strategic control through TVS Holdings’ 50.26 percent stake in the listed company.

Market Reaction and Investor Sentiment

The stock market reacted cautiously to the leadership change. On August 28, 2026, the day the announcement was made, shares of TVS Motor fell more than 4 percent, reflecting investor sensitivity to the end of Radhakrishnan’s 18-year tenure at the helm of a company that has been on a strong growth trajectory. The fall came even though Kargar is an internal candidate with extensive global automotive experience.

The reaction reflects three specific concerns. First, Radhakrishnan has been closely associated with TVS Motor’s transformation, and investors want to see whether Kargar will preserve the existing strategy or pivot significantly on capital allocation, product roadmaps and international expansion. Second, TVS Motor currently trades at a relatively high valuation driven by strong recent performance, and any perceived disruption to that growth trajectory is being punished by the market. Third, the broader Indian two-wheeler industry is facing intensifying competition in the electric scooter segment from players like Ola Electric, Bajaj and Ather, alongside the traditional rivalry with Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto.

The metrics that will be most closely watched over the next few quarters are domestic market share, premium motorcycle volumes (Apache, Ronin and the upcoming Norton range), electric two-wheeler growth, export volumes, and profit margins. Given that Kargar has already been running the international business, which now contributes nearly a third of total volumes, his familiarity with one of the company’s most important growth levers is expected to provide some comfort to long-term investors.

Key Takeaways

• TVS Motor Company appointed Peyman Kargar as Director and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 27, 2027, on a five-year term as a whole-time director and key managerial personnel.
• Kargar succeeds K. N. Radhakrishnan (KNR), who will continue as CEO during a five-month transition and then serve as a Non-Executive Director until TVS Motor’s Annual General Meeting in July 2027.
• Kargar joined TVS Motor in March 2025 as President of International Business from Dubai; under his leadership, international markets grew to around 29 percent of total volumes, rising at roughly 33 percent year on year.
• He earlier served as Global Chairman and President of Infiniti Motor Company (Nissan’s luxury brand) from June 2020 to February 2024, and as Chairman and Senior Vice President of Nissan’s Africa, Middle East and India region (80-plus countries) from April 2017.
• Kargar is an MBA graduate of London Business School and an engineering graduate of Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) de Lyon, France.
• Radhakrishnan led TVS Motor as CEO from August 2008 to January 2027 (18 years); he is an IIT Madras postgraduate who began his career in 1984 at Sundaram Clayton.
• Under Radhakrishnan, Sundaram Clayton became the first Indian company to win the Deming Application Prize (2002), and TVS Motor posted record FY26 sales of 5.9 million vehicles with 30 percent revenue growth.
• TVS Motor is part of the TVS Group founded by T. V. Sundram Iyengar in 1911 in Madurai; the listed company is headquartered in Chennai, with its main plant at Hosur, Tamil Nadu.
• Sudarshan Venu has been Chairman and Managing Director of TVS Motor since August 2025; his father Venu Srinivasan remains Chairman Emeritus and a director on the board of Tata Sons.
• On the announcement day (August 28, 2026), TVS Motor shares fell more than 4 percent, reflecting investor sensitivity to the end of Radhakrishnan’s long tenure.
• The group holds TVS Motor through TVS Holdings with a 50.26 percent stake; Norton Motorcycles is a wholly owned subsidiary, and TVS Motor is also the Indian manufacturing partner for BMW Motorrad’s G 310 R and G 310 GS.