MG Motor Expects 30% Of Sales To Come From EVs This Year; Gears Up To Drive In Electric Hatch Comet

Bullish on electric mobility MG Motor India expects 30 per cent of its sales to accrue from the electric vehicle segment this year as it gears up to introduce its second offering in the vertical next month, according to the company's President and Managing Director Rajeev Chaba.

The company, which currently sells ZS EV in the country, has unveiled a two-door electric vehicle 'Comet' which it plans to introduce in phase wise manner across the country starting next month.

"This year we expect that 30 per cent of our sales -- 80,000 or 90,000 units -- should come from the two electric models," Chaba said.

He noted that the sales of electric passenger vehicles are set to rise dramatically in India. From around 50,000 units last year, it is expected to touch 1.2 lakh units this year, Chaba said. 

Citing global trends, he noted that electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle sales were now accounting for 30 per cent of the overall new sales in China.

Similarly, it is accounting for 20 per cent of sales in Europe and 10 per cent in the US market, Chaba said.

"In India, we are less than 2 per cent but this number will continue to go up. For India, the tipping point would be when the penetration levels reach 10 per cent and there are more choices for consumers around Rs 10 lakh price range," he stated.

MG Motor has already sold around 10,000 units of ZS EV so far and it expects sales of the model to touch 1,000 units a month soon, Chaba said. 

He noted that the company has been able to increase the installed manufacturing capacity at its Halol-based plant to 1.2 lakh units a year from 60,000 units in the erstwhile GM regime.

"If we are lucky, we could produce between 80,000 to 1 lakh units this year and next year it should be 1.2 lakh units," Chaba said. 

Chaba noted that the company hit break-even in March this year.

"We broke even in March and we should be able to make a little bit of money this year if we are able to sell 80,000 to 1 lakh units," he added. 

Chaba said the automaker has invested between Rs 600-700 crore on the development of Comet which would be rolled out from its Halol-based plant in Gujarat with a localisation content of around 53-54 per cent. 

Expecting a robust response, MG Motor is looking to gradually ramp up the production capacity of Comet to around 3,000 units a month, he added. 

Chaba said the car, which could run for around 230 km on a single charge, is well suited for intra-city 'practical' usage. 

The cost of ownership is going to be very economical, Chaba said. 

He noted that the company would discourage buyers who do a lot of inter-city trips. 

"We are going to be very serious about not selling this car to certain categories of people," Chaba said. 

Comet comes with a 17.3 KWH li-ion battery and can be fully charged in around 7 hours. It comes with automatic transmission, front two airbags and reverse parking camera among various other features. 

MG Motor is a wholly-owned arm of China's SAIC Motor Corp.