MG City EV to take on Tiago EV; will launch by June 2023

The Tata Tiago EV is creating ripples in the Indian mass-market EV segment but MG Motor India is also readying its own contender around a similar price point. The MG City EV is expected to see a global debut early next year and will subsequently go on sale.

• MG City EV launch by June 2023
• Annual production capacity at Halol plant now at 1,25,000

MG City EV: may not be cheapest electric car in country

The City EV will be the second electric offering from MG and is expected to go on sale around April-June 2023. This new model, as we’ve reported earlier, will be a compact two-door city car based on the Wuling Air EV, which is already on sale in markets like Indonesia. While its footprint is likely to set it against the Tata Tiago EV, it will not necessarily be the cheapest electric passenger car in the country.

Rajeev Chaba, president and MD, MG Motor India, said, “We don’t believe in giving the proposition of the cheapest car in its segment, our focus rather is on offering good value along with contemporary technologies to our customers. We are looking at creating our own segment and providing a unique urban-mobility solution with our new EV.”

According to Chaba, it is imperative to localise EV components in India to reduce dependence on imports in the long run and that a locally assembled battery pack is a good point to begin with.

MG City EV to get upto 60 percent localised components

“In the first phase, we are definitely targeting a domestic value add of up to 60 percent at the start of production of our new EV,” said Chaba. “We have to see that even the cells should be produced locally to reduce dependence on imports.” 

As reported earlier by us, MG will locally source the battery pack from Tata AutoComp.

MG to ramp up EV production in India

With overall sales of 1,591 units in the first half of FY2023 of its sole electric model, the ZS EV SUV, MG Motor India says it is now seeing improved supplies of components for EVs and is targeting to close the fiscal with sales of approximately 6,000 units.

“We are ramping up our EV production and reaching 500 units per month starting October, with projections of touching 700 units each in November and December. We will close the calendar with 5,000 units, which would be a marked 80 percent year-on-year improvement,” said Chaba.

In the run up to the new model’s launch, the company is also strengthening its production capacity at its Halol plant in Gujarat, and has recently completed an expansion from 60,000 annual units to 1,25,000.

The brand currently sells the Astor, the Hector and Hector Plus (facelift due soon) the ZS EV SUV and the Gloster SUV in the Indian market.

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