MG Motor, the British manufacturer owned by Chinese company SAIC have announced a range of new products for launch in India. The first of these will be a mid sized C segment SUV which will be launched in Q2 2019. This new SUV will be a rival to cars like Hyundai Creta, Tata Harrier, Jeep Compass.
The SUV will be offered with petrol and diesel engine options. The company did not reveal what these will be, but it is rumoured that they have signed up with Fiat to use the same engine options that we see on the Compass in India.
1 year within the launch of this new SUV, MG will launch their second car. This will be in the form of an electric vehicle. This will be a pure 100% EV. MG did not reveal more details about size, or range. Both these new cars from MG Motor in India will be made with heavy localization levels of 75%. None of the two cars will be CKD or CBU. MG wants to appeal to the mass market in India. Post the launch of these two cars, they will launch 1 new car every year in India.
MG Motors plans big investments in the country. In the first phase they have planned investment of USD 500 million (Rs 3,800 crores). The company has recently procured the Halol plant in Gujarat from General Motors wherein capacity will be increased from 80,000 units to 1,00,000 units in the first phase. The company aims to achieve 100% plant capacity utilization in 3-4 years of their first car launch. Post that, they will plan on increasing capacity. MG Motor also has plans to export made in India cars to neighbouring countries.
MG Motors India will also be appointing a total of 45 dealer partners with around 100 touch points across the country in the first phase. Besides these dealer bases, the company will also be appointing 1,500 employees by the end of next year, increasing strength from a current 300 employees.
To boost sales and draw public attention to these new launches, MG Motor will also conduct pre-launch activities and draw attention to upcoming models via road shows. Each of the company models will be designed and engineered in UK and China with inputs received from engineers in India. The vehicles will also be built to suit Indian road and driving conditions.
