After more than a year of negotiations, Iveco is now officially owned by Tata. Following its purchase of Jaguar Land Rover, the Indian industrial group has acquired another piece of European industrial heritage. The deal must help Iveco to accelerate its strides in zero-emission transport.
A takeover target. That is how Iveco had been viewed for years in Europe’s truck industry, where Daimler Truck, Volvo Group and Traton dominate the landscape.
The Italians, spun off from CNH Industrial as an independent company only in 2022, were among the smallest players in the field. But when leveled with today’s challenges of decarbonizing road transport, that is not the best starting point.
Ciao ciao Agnelli
Through its Dutch subsidiary TML CV Holdings, Tata Motors has now secured 89.42% of Iveco’s share capital and owns the Italian company. The investment is valued at approximately €3.43 billion.
The road to that takeover was not entirely smooth. Tata opened with an offer of €14.10 per share in the summer of 2025, but was forced to raise it to €14.40 per share in October after the approval process took longer than expected.
The new ownership also marks the departure of the Agnelli family. Through its holding company, Exor, the family owned 27.1% of the shares but now cedes its stake. Gradually, Turin’s industrial dynasty is dismantling its Italian involvement.
End of an era
What Tata has purchased is a slimmed-down Iveco. Its defence division was sold earlier this year to Italian defence group Leonardo, keeping the business of building armoured vehicles firmly in Italian hands.
The Indian group, which makes its own trucks and utilitarian vehicles, ensures continuity for the core business: Daily vans, heavy-duty trucks, buses, and the engine manufacturer FPT Industrial.
On paper, that combined business looks impressive. Together, the two manufacturers account for more than 540,000 vehicles annually, spread across Europe (50%), India (35%) and the Americas (15%).
Tata chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran describes the deal as “a logical next step”, intended to enable the group to compete globally from two strategic home markets. Asia and Africa have been identified as key growth regions.
Combining supplier networks
Both partners are particularly keen to emphasize electrification. They intend to combine their supplier networks and manufacturing capacity to bring zero-emission commercial vehicles to market faster and at lower cost, with FPT Industrial playing a key role.
That is hardly an unnecessary luxury. Electric trucks such as the Iveco S-eWay require investments that smaller manufacturers are finding increasingly difficult to finance on their own. Meanwhile, Europe’s CO₂ targets for heavy-duty vehicles leave little room for maneuver.
Been there before
Whether the combination of strong Indian capital and Iveco’s know-how will bear ripe fruit remains an open question. But Tata has a successful track record.
In 2008, it acquired Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) from Ford, a deal initially met with skepticism that eventually developed into a fully fledged British-Indian partnership. While it took a long time for all the pieces to fall into place, JLR’s return to profitability happened in only a couple of year—aA remarkable turnaround.
Until now, however, Tata had virtually no presence in Europe’s commercial vehicle industry: no factories and barely any market share. Iveco, which generates 74% of its revenue in Europe, fills that gap in one stroke.
