COVID-19 pandemic will not result in any changes to MG Motors' long terms plans for India
The coronavirus pandemic may have disrupted short term plans of most automakers including launch timetables of new models, the mid to long term intent is likely to remain intact.
MG Motor India, the 100 percent subsidiary of Chinese automotive giant SAIC, is expecting some changes in the buying pattern due to the pandemic, however, this will not result in any changes to its long terms plans for the country.
Speaking to Moneycontrol, Rajeev Chaba, president and managing director, MG Motor India, said, “Right now we need to focus on the current crisis and ways to come out of it. This too shall pass. If we are to talk about plans of 2021 and 2022 I don’t think there should be any impact on those plans because the fundamentals remain intact in terms of demographics, the demand, and population buying power.”
While MG’s short term plans include launch of the Gloster premium sports utility vehicle (SUV) around Diwali and launch of a six-seater variant of Hector SUV before that, it’s mid to long term plans include the fourth SUV next year and couple more products before end 2022, as per sources.
There are plans of putting up the second plant that could possibly come up in the south of the country catering to future product lineup including electric vehicles as the current plant, which earlier belonged to General Motors, has limited capacity.
The Halol, Gujarat plant, which has seen an investment of Rs 2,000 crore out of the committed Rs 5,000 crore, has a maximum production capacity of 100,000 units a year. MG also has the option of expanding this factory for future use.
“Yes there could be some behavioral changes and there can be some deep or profound impact of this coronavirus on people’s psyche but the basics will remain the same. There is no change in our long term plans because of this short term issue,” added Chaba.
MG Motor has unserviced bookings of 16,000 units on the Hector and 2,000 units on the ZS EV. In the ten months of sales, MG clocked volumes of nearly 22,000 units with two models, Hector and ZS.
In February, MG sold 1,376 units and in the month of March it sold as many as 1,581 units.
The coronavirus outbreak has forced several companies to relook their decisions. Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) said that it will review all its plans while Citroen has pushed back its India debut by at least four months. Isuzu too has rescheduled launch of BS-VI models to Q2 FY21 from Q1.Time to show-off your poker skills and win Rs.25 lakhs with no investment. Register Now!
