MG Motor India has officially announced to launch an electric vehicle in the next fiscal year. The new model will be priced between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh, and will target masses. The new model will be an electric crossover vehicle based on a global platform but customised for the Indian market.
It is expected that the next MG electric crossover will be a sub-4 meter model. The new model should offer an electric range of over 300kms. It will be positioned against the Tata Nexon EV, which is currently India’s best-selling EV holding close to 60% market share. Hyundai, Mahindra and Kia also plans to launch compact electric SUVs in 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.”
The company has decided to introduce an electric vehicle by the end of next financial year. The new MG electric crossover will be priced from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh and will target the mass segment of personal electric mobility. Mr. Chaba stated, “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 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.”
Bullish on the planned EV, he said, “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.”Chaba further said in order to meet the government’s guidelines for the production linked (PLI) scheme for the auto sector, MG Motor India will localise a lot of parts for its next EV. These would include battery assembly, motors and localisation of other parts, he added.MG Motor India’s other offering in the electric mobility, the ZS EV, is available in two variants priced at Rs 21 lakh and Rs 24.68 lakh (ex-showroom).
