MG India rolls out 10,000th Hector four months after launch

MG Motor India has rolled out its 10,000th Hector SUV from its plant in Halol, Gujarat, four months after the SUV was launched on June 27, 2019. This news comes on the back of a recent announcement by the carmaker that it will ramp up production at its manufacturing facility by hiring 500 new employees to start a second shift from November onwards. Ironically, the development comes at a time when the automobile industry in India has been witnessing massive job losses due slowdown since the past several quarters.

A senior executive at the company said, “We now have our second shift starting in November as our global supplier base has supplied and supported us and that has also helped us to attract additional employees in our workforce.”

Rajeev Chaba, president and managing director, MG Motor India, said, “With the re-opening of bookings, the MG Hector has further gained momentum as the most compelling proposition in the SUV-C segment. Our endeavour is to ensure customer satisfaction through timely vehicle deliveries in the coming months.”

According to Gaurav Gupta, Chief Commercial Officer, MG Motors (India)  the induction of new workers is for across-the-job profiles required for the running of the plant. The plant has the capacity to manufacture 80,000 units annually in three shifts.

MG Motors earlier had to temporarily stop accepting bookings for its Hector SUV in July following selling out of its planned quota for the year. The number of bookings for the company currently stands at 42,000 units, around 8,000 units of which came in the past fortnight since it reopened the bookings since September 29. An estimate done by the company indicates bookings to cross the 50,000-unit mark by the year-end. Production of the Hector touched around  3,000 units in September; the company plans to ramp it up to 3,500 units in the next few months.

The company plans to invest Rs 2,600 crore within the next few years, primarily to ramp up the capacity, taking MG Motors’ total investment in India to Rs 5,000 crore. The company, which has sold a total of 6,134 units in August-September 2019, expects to sell around 2,600-2,800 units in October.

Now priced from Rs 12.48 lakh and going up to Rs 17.28 lakh (ex-showroom, India), the MG Hector is available with four engine-gearbox combinations – a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol with manual and DCT automatic options, a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol with mild-hybrid assist that comes with a manual gearbox, and a 2.0-litrte turbo-diesel with a manual transmission.

Also read: New SUV launches rev up market share for Hyundai, Kia, Renault and MG

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