Manufacturing Companies in Chennai: an overview
Chennai's factory base is older than most Indian industrial hubs. MRF began as a toy-balloon unit in a shed at Tiruvottiyur in 1946, and Ashok Leyland describes its Ennore plant, established in 1948, as its 'Mother Plant'. A Royal Enfield factory followed in Madras in 1955, the same year Indian Railways set up the Integral Coach Factory with Swiss collaboration to build all-steel passenger coaches.
From the late 1990s, global automakers settled along the city's south-western corridor. Hyundai Motor India, established in 1996, has its registered office and factory in the SIPCOT park at Irungattukottai, Sriperumbudur. BMW opened its plant at Mahindra World City in 2007. Daimler India Commercial Vehicles runs a 400-acre site at Oragadam that also houses its headquarters and R&D, and in 2025 India's competition regulator cleared Renault's purchase of Nissan's stake in the Oragadam car plant the two had shared.
Electronics makers and component suppliers sit close to these assembly lines. Samsung set up its Sriperumbudur facility in 2007, and Salcomp makes chargers in the Nokia Telecom SEZ in the same area. Suppliers from the TVS group, including Brakes India, Sundram Fasteners and Wheels India, run plants in Padi in the city's north-west, while Royal Enfield now builds its motorcycles at Oragadam and Vallam Vadagal.