Renowned British manufacturer MG Motors has announced that it will focus on building EVs for the Indian market. MG Motor India previously stated that it’s working on a brand new, mass-market EV that will arrive by March 2023. The automaker said that their new EV would cost between INR 10-15 lakh and enhance its electric portfolio. MG Motor India also revealed that it expects 20% of sales from EVs in India over the next 2 years.
For their new EV, MG Motor India will utilize its global platform, which it will customize to meet Indian regulations. To bring the cost down even lower, the automaker aims to achieve high localization, including battery assembly. Along with assembling several components, the automaker will meet government guidelines under the production-linked incentives (PLI) scheme. Once on sale, the new EV will compete with Tata Nexon EV, which has become a huge hit amongst the masses.
Launched in January 2020, the MG ZS EV has been a major success for the brand and sports two variants. MG has priced the base variant at INR 21 lakh (ex-showroom), whereas the top-spec variant costs INR 24.68 lakh (ex-showroom). Powered by a 44.5 kWh lithium-ion battery pack, the MG ZS EV sports a driving range of 419 Km. In the last 22 months since its launch, MG Motor India has sold 3,838 MG ZS EVs in total.
The automaker stated that it’s struggling to meet customer demand as it receives 700 bookings every month for the EV. By contributing to 7% of overall sales, MG has sold 2,696 units of the ZS EV in 2021. Overall, the automaker has sold a total of 37,723 units between January-November 2021, which represents a 56% sales increase. During the same period in 2020, MG Motor India sold a total of 24,152 units in the country.
Recently, MG Motor India announced its partnership with battery-cycle organization Attero to focus on a sustainable EV economy in India. According to the partnership, Attero will help MG recycle its batteries to extract metals and other commodities for new batteries. This will allow MG to promote clean and green mobility in India and retrieve metals like Copper, Lithium, and Cobalt.
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