MG Motor reveals Hector SUV for India, launch in June 2019

MG Motor India today revealed the Hector SUV, its first SUV for India. According to Autocar India, the car will be officially launched in June 2019 and is expected to be priced at around Rs 15-20 lakh range.

The car, produced at Halol facility in Gujarat is said to have undergone around 1 million kilometres of testing in diverse road and climatic conditions across the country. The company says it has undertaken extensive localisation, with more than 300+ India specific changes have been carried out in the MG Hector to suit the customer preferences and road conditions.

Till now, MG Motor India has invested Rs 2,200 crore in its Gujarat manufacturing plant. The company has set up new assembly line, new press shop, new body shop, new parts distribution centre, testing track and a state-of-the-art training facility in the plant, within a span of 18 months. At present, the Halol plant has a production capacity of 80,000 units per annum, which can be increased going forward depending upon the requirement. The carmaker had also set up a captive vendor park at its plant.

The carmaker will begin shipments of the Hector SUV within the next few weeks to its network of 65 showrooms across 50 cities.

Autocar India has revealed that there will be a total of 13 versions of the MG Hector. MG is aiming to give the Hector a wide price bracket, and so, will offer it in four trim levels – Style, Super, Smart and Sharp. Hector comes with a 10.4-inch, portrait-oriented touchscreen. Named the iSmart, this touchscreen houses a host of connectivity features, powered by an embedded Airtel SIM card. MG Hector is touted to be India's first internet car. There's faux leather on the seats, dash and door panels.

In terms of safety features, the MG Hector gets two airbags, ABS with EBD, ESP, traction control, rear parking sensors and disc brakes on all four wheels as standard; the Smart variant gets four airbags while the Sharp gets six airbags.

The MG Hector’s engine options include a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine producing 143hp and 250Nm of torque, and a 2.0-litre, FCA-sourced diesel making 170hp and 350Nm of torque. As it stands, both engines are BS4-compliant only. While a 6-speed manual will be available with both engines, the turbo-petrol also gets the option of a 6-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. Also on offer will be a 48V mild-hybrid petrol variant (with the 6-speed manual gearbox only) which is said to be 12 percent more fuel efficient than the petrol-only variant.

The MG Hector's fuel efficiency is rated at 13.96kpl for the petrol and dual-clutch auto, 14.16kpl for the petrol-manual and 17.41kpl for the diesel version.

Also read: MG Motor India begins production of Hector SUV

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