MG Motors, the former British marque owned by Chinese automotive company SAIC on Monday outlined their India plans.
According to Rajeev Chaba, President and Managing Director, MG Motors India and a former General Motors India boss, the carmaker will roll out their first vehicle, a sports-utility vehicle, likely to be the MG ZS which would compete against the Hyundai Creta, by the middle of next year.
SAIC, one of China’s largest industrial corporations and carmakers has already bought the former General Motors India facilities at Halol, Gujarat to make their cars and has a five-year outlay of over Rs 5,000 crore with Rs 2,000 crore already spent.
According to Chaba, SAIC is making major updates to the Halol facilities including a whole new bodyshop, bringing up the facilities to modern standards.
It also plans to have at least 300 customer touchpoints at the time of launch.
Following the first launch, the carmaker plans to launch a new vehicle every year. With an existing workforce of 150, plans are ongoing to recruit up to 1,000 workers for the manufacturing facilities at Halol and talks are also ongoing with several Indian automotive ancillary manufacturers.
The MG brand, which stood for ‘Morris Garages’ is being used by SAIC to power their global expansion. In 2006, after the collapse of MG Rover in the UK, they were bought out by Chinese carmaker Nanjing Automotive, which in turn was acquired by SAIC which was noted for being the joint-venture Chinese partner to General Motors and Volkswagen in China.
However, only some research and development facilities remain in the United Kingdom. The plans for India are just a part of the Chinese carmaker’s intention to create a global car empire, with new facilities in Thailand and Latin America also planned.
However, with the Indian passenger car market dominated by two players — Maruti-Suzuki and Hyundai with over three-quarters of sales and many multinationals not making a mark, Chaba expected MG to be different. “We will give assurances to our customers and dealers that we are here to stay and we will bring meaningful products that add value to our customers lives. We are also committed to India in the long-term and have plans of 80 percent localisation from the very start.”