MG will launch an affordable EV in India

A subsidiary of the Chinese SAIC Motor Corporation, MG Motors India has recently made an announcement on the launch of their next EV. The British motoring brand has disclosed that they will be launching a mass-market EV in India within a two-year period.

This new EV will be a crossover based on an MG’s global platform vehicle, however, it will be tailored to the requirements of the Indian subcontinent. Pricing for this new vehicle should be in the range of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh. Speculations are that it could arrive sometime in the first half of 2023.

MG plans to take on the current segment leader Tata Nexon EV with this new crossover. As the Nexon EV became the country’s highest-selling electric vehicle, other brands like Hyundai, Mahindra, and Kia are looking to join this niche. The new MG crossover should be a sub-four meter vehicle, with an estimated range of around 300kms.

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MG Motor India President and Managing Director Rajeev Chaba said, “Our next product after SUV Astor, we have been thinking about an EV and now we have been very encouraged with the absolute clarity from the government side that EV is the way to go,”.

He further added that “We have taken the decision that we are going to introduce an EV by the end of next financial year.” On the expected price, he said it will range from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh and will target the mass segment of personal electric mobility. It is actually a kind of a crossover, and this is going to be based on a global platform, which we are going to develop, and this will be an EV for the mass market for all the emerging markets including India,”.

“We will customise this car for the range and the Indian regulations and customer taste…It will be specially tailored for India. We will start working on it right now. This is the kind of tipping point that we have been talking about that if we are able to do a car between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh that can give us good volumes. So hopefully, this would be our volume EV car”, said the President and Managing Director Chaba.

At present, MG has only one fully electric vehicle in its portfolio in India, and that is the ZS EV, which is available in two variants priced at Rs 21 lakh and Rs 24.68 lakh (ex-showroom). The ZS EV recently received a facelift for the global markets. Along with a raft of cosmetic changes, the vehicle also received a significant bump in the powertrain specs. It is now offered with a larger 72kWh battery that gives a 437km range (WLTP). However, it has not been disclosed that when this facelift will make it to our shores.

Chaba also said that they currently have more than 2,000 orders pending of the ZS EV. However, their production capacity is maxed out at 250 to 300 units a month due to the semiconductor shortage. He said, “We will increase this from February onwards. We are going to make it, maybe 500 units to 600 units a month,”

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