JSW MG Motor India has announced MG Select, a new sales channel for the brand’s upcoming “premium vehicle” line-up. The MG Select showrooms will sell higher end, or as the company says 'new age luxury ' vehicles.
JSW MG Motor says that MG Select will commence operations with 12 major cities by Q1 next year with more outlets set to follow. The MG Select outlets will cater to a new set of customers and owners of the upcoming MG Premium line-up.
The outlets will have both sales and service facilities and will have a new distinct identity in terms of dealership aesthetic and communication materials. Much like Maruti’s Nexa outlets, there won't be a hard price point separating MG products from regular and MG Select dealerships.
Speaking to Autocar India, Gaurav Gupta, chief growth officer, JSW MG Motor India, said “we will not have a fixed price point to differentiate but the MG Select products will all be differentiated in terms of the luxury they offer, the luxury is what we call new age luxury, so it will be affordable.'
While MG can explore fully imported units for some MG Select products, it will focus on locally built models. “We think that (locally assembled) is the right way to go even if you are looking at higher end models,” says Gupta.
The MG Select outlets will focus on what the company calls NEVs or new electrified vehicles, that is hybrids, plug-in-hybrids and pure electrics. Gupta says that while the overall percentage for EVs is 2 percent, at the luxury end it's 7 percent and thus it feels electrified models is the way to go for it's select dealerships.
Interestingly MG has not chosen to use a separate name for it's premium retail line like Maruti has with Nexa, and instead has gone with just a suffix to the MG brand name. The move will help further propagate the MG brand name. "The two will build each other up," says Gupta.
As far as models go, the company has been tight lipped about what it will bring to India but they have announced that there will be four all-new products that will be launched in the first two years of MG Select’s introduction. One of these will be the MG Cyberster sports car that was shown in India earlier this year. We understand that the Cybrster will be the first model to go on sale in India via MG Select outlets as the brand will use it as a halo and brand shaper.
The existing MG dealers have been invited to open MG Select outlets and many have shown interest, according to Gupta. JSW MG Motor India has plans to introduce the MG Select outlets in smaller cities as well.