MG Motor India takes dealership experience exercise to Bangalore

MG Motor India, the Indian arm of Chinese carmaker SAIC, which is set to commence its manufacturing and retail operations in the Indian market in H1 of CY2019, today further reiterated its commitment to the country through its second dealership experience event, held in Bangalore. The company had started off with the dealer engagement activity with the first of such events held in the financial capital of Mumbai, on March 28.

The ongoing dealership experience exercise is aimed at selecting the right partners for MG’s operations in India and the company has already received well over 2,400 applications from prospective dealers from all across the country on its website, since it opened entries on March 11, 2018.

With over 600 entries of the total lot belonging to the southern markets, the company eyes strong potential in the region, especially in the IT hub of Bangalore, which it foresees could become one of the Top 3 markets in the country as the carmaker goes on to sell its products.  

According to Rajeev Chaba, president and managing director, MG Motor India, “We are strongly focused on well developed southern markets since this region has proven to have early adopters who are open to trying out new global products. We are confident that winning over the discerning consumers in this region will augur well for us in the initial phase and will give the impetus to drive nationwide sales. Overall, we expect 35 to 40 percent of our sales to come from southern India in the initial phase of our nationwide operations.”

MG Motor India also shared its business plans with the selected prospects at the experience meet. While it aims to have 100 dealers in key cities to kick-off its retail operations, it will, however, grow to have over 300 outlets in the country over the next three to five years.

The company will look for dealer associates who could resonate its brand synergy and will conduct an extensive evaluation process to finalise the partners. The key selection parameters will include good market credibility, local market knowledge, financial background, digital savviness, excellent operational efficiency and the capability to deliver a differentiated service commitment that surpasses the industry standard and sets new benchmarks.

While the end goal is being kept to be top-notch customer experience, the company will also accord strong emphasis to digitisation and business analytics, and will offer a strong support system to its upcoming dealer partners, helping them run their operations effectively and profitably.

The company is also looking at engaging diversified partners from the non-automotive business with proven experience across organised customer-oriented retail industry.

MG Motor India, which is currently re-building erstwhile General Motors India's Halol plant in Gujarat for setting up its manufacturing base in the country, is targeting 25,000 to 30,000 units in the first year and aims to ramp up capacity to 200,000 units by 2024-25. A Hyundai Creta-rivalling SUV will be its first weapon of attack for the Indian market and will be introduced in the April-June quarter of 2019.