MG Motor India, the Indian arm of the iconic British car maker now owned by China’s SAIC Motor Corporation, on Thursday launched its SUV Hector, at an introductory price range of Rs 12.18-16.88 lakh. Deliveries will start by the first week of next month.
The Hector will take on the likes of the Mahindra XUV500, the Tata Harrier, Jeep Compass, Hyundai Creta and the upcoming Kia Seltos in the Rs 12-25 lakh SUV segment.
The Hector will be available in four variants — Style, Super, Smart and Sharp — and a total of 11 configurations.
Besides, it will offer a package of services, known as MG Shield, to entice customers. The company will offer a warranty for unlimited kilometres for a period of five years along with round-the-clock roadside assistance with no additional labour charges.
The Hector is the company’s first model in India and will be followed by an electric SUV EZS later this year.
Next year, the company will launch two models. The Hector comes with 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol and 2-litre diesel engine options. It also has a 48-volt hybrid option in the petrol variant.
MG Motor India president and managing director Rajeev Chaba said the company had already received bookings of over 10,000 units since it opened on June 4. “We have had a good response to the Hector going by the bookings with customers not even knowing the price,” he added.
On expectations from the Hector considering it has been launched at a time the automobile market in India is going through a slump, Chaba said, “Our current production capacity is for 2,000 units a month initially. So, even if there are some booking cancellations, we would be doing around that number to start with.”
He said the market was expected to pick up in the October-December period when there would be “lot of deals” as manufacturers seek to liquidate their BS-IV inventory ahead of the transition to BS-VI in April next year.
MG Motor India has already invested Rs 2,200 crore to set up its business in the country, including the manufacturing plant at Halol in Gujarat and dealerships.
