Chief Executive Officer — Passenger-Vehicle Business

The mandate

A passenger-vehicle business headquartered in Pune has committed to electric models while its combustion portfolio still funds the transition and sustains dealer throughput. Product plans currently assume faster electric adoption than recent retail and charging evidence supports, yet delaying every programme would surrender capability and supplier position. The board needs an executive who can reset the portfolio without reducing the strategy to an ideological choice between technologies.

The Chief Executive Officer will lead a direct organisation of approximately 575 employees and material partners and carry enterprise accountability for a vehicle portfolio and associated investment of roughly ₹8,200 crore. Manufacturing, engineering, sales, dealer, finance and supply leaders sit in the wider matrix. The CEO owns portfolio, brand, P&L, capital, channels, customer outcomes, partnerships and the operating contract across them.

The immediate choices concern model cadence, battery and electronics sourcing, plant flexibility, pricing and the future of marginal combustion derivatives. Each option affects jobs, supplier tooling, dealer working capital and residual values already in the market. The appointee must establish demand and contribution by use case, protect cash from the installed portfolio and fund electric learning where it creates a defensible path.

Customers will judge the transition through reliability, charging experience, finance, resale and aftersales, not only launch specifications. The CEO must bring those lifecycle consequences into product approval and avoid growth that creates future warranty or channel losses. Decisions should be reversible where uncertainty remains and decisive where delayed tooling would destroy value.

Used-vehicle and financing partners must see the same transition logic. Residual assumptions, battery health evidence and repurchase exposure can change affordability long after a launch discount is forgotten. The CEO will require finance and remarketing consequences in each programme case before announcing customer pricing.

Why this seat is open

The incumbent is departing on an accelerated but orderly basis for a non-competing opportunity. A divisional leader provides interim continuity, but cannot commit the full portfolio and capital reset. This is an urgent replacement expected within six to eight weeks. No undisclosed safety issue, regulatory event or conduct finding prompted the succession.

What you will own

• Reset the five-year vehicle and technology portfolio using demand, contribution, regulation, capability and capital evidence.
• Decide the pace and conditions for electric launches, combustion refreshes, hybrids, partnerships and exits.
• Protect dealer economics, inventory and customer confidence through each portfolio change.
• Align plants, suppliers and engineering capacity to scenario-based volumes rather than one adoption forecast.
• Set lifecycle economics covering battery, software, warranty, finance, resale and aftersales.
• Chair product and capital decisions with explicit assumptions, gates and downside actions.
• Build executive succession across product, commercial, manufacturing and electric-vehicle leadership.
• Represent the business with regulators, strategic partners and the group board without disclosing premature plans.

The first 12 months

Within 60 days, the CEO will reconcile retail demand, order quality, model contribution, capacity and committed tooling. By day 90, the board should approve revised portfolio principles, immediate programme decisions and scenarios for electric adoption. Dealers and pivotal suppliers will receive controlled, decision-relevant communication rather than aspirational volume.

By month eight, priority product and plant choices should be contracted, uneconomic derivatives should stop or receive explicit turnaround gates and the first electric customer-experience interventions should be live. Executive roles will be filled and the capital cadence will compare actual demand with trigger points monthly.

At year-end, portfolio contribution should improve by at least 150 basis points against the reset baseline, dealer inventory age should fall by 20% and electric order-to-retail conversion should increase by 15 points. Committed capital should remain within the approved envelope, with no material deterioration in warranty, safety or pivotal-supplier continuity.

What the board will measure

• Portfolio decisions made early enough to protect cash and strategic options.
• Electric adoption and lifecycle outcomes separated from wholesale dispatch volume.
• Dealer, supplier and plant consequences reflected in capital choices.
• Forecasts that remain decision-useful across demand scenarios.
• A leadership team capable of carrying the transition beyond the CEO.

The person

You are a passenger-vehicle CEO, business president or automotive group executive who has managed overlapping technology cycles. You have owned product, manufacturing and channel consequences, not merely strategy or an electric programme. Experience in India or another value-sensitive, dealer-led market is highly relevant.

At least 28 years of experience is expected, with direct accountability for ₹4,700 crore or more and leadership across at least 400 employees plus a material matrix. The board will test a vehicle programme you stopped, a forecast you reset and a dealer or supplier consequence you personally owned. You should be credible with engineers, consumers and capital committees without becoming captive to any one constituency.

The role is Pune-based and hybrid, with regular presence at plants, dealerships and development locations.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹5.0–7.5 crore plus performance variable and long-term incentives. Measures will balance contribution, portfolio delivery, electric adoption, customer outcomes, cash and successor depth. Dispatch volume alone will not determine reward. Final terms reflect the agreed perimeter and current mix, with standard vesting and malus provisions.

Confidentiality

The manufacturer, brands, vehicle programmes, plants and partners are confidential. Qualified candidates receive further information under an undertaking after reciprocal interest. The Pune location and rounded investment scale must not be used to identify the business.