Saar: The Chinese-owned British marque will launch a pure-electric SUV within a year after it introduces the first product in India.

Last year SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) officially announced its entry into India. Back then all it had to say was that it will have a production plant in Halol, Gujarat and it will bring the MG Motor brand on our shores. For the uninitiated, MG Motor is a British marque that was brought back from the dead by the Chinese automotive group. Now, the company has detailed on what it plans to do over the next couple of years.

To begin its sales chapter in India next year, MG Motor India is in the process of finalising around 45 dealer partners and around 100 touchpoints across the country. The company, which currently has 300 employees, will increase the count to about 1,500 by the end of next year. As for the production plant, it presently has a production capacity of 80,000 units per year. Based on how the response is from the market, MG Motor India will increase the production capacity to 2 lakh units per annum.

MG ZS

As far as the products are concerned, MG Motor India will commence its innings with an SUV, which will launch in the second half of next year. The said product will compete with the likes of the Hyundai Tucson, Jeep Compass and the upcoming Tata Harrier. Within a year of its introduction, MG Motor India will launch a pure-electric SUV. That means the model with no emissions to report will be amongst us latest by the mid of 2020. It was in April this year when the first test mule of the said EV was spotted testing in India.

Michael Yang, executive director of international business, SAIC Motor and president of SAIC Motor International Company, described pure-electric SUV in his own words. He said:

“MG will launch a globally-competitive pure-electric SUV in India, to make our contribution to India’s energy and environmental strategies. The pure electric SUV will be a breakthrough chapter in the EV space in India, being one of its kind in the market.”

MG ZS

Here’s what Rajeev Chaba, president and managing director, MG Motor India, said in an official release:

“As part of our commitment to this market, we are fast ramping up all our pre-launch activities, beginning with product roadshows for consumers in India next month. This will be followed by various brand-awareness initiatives to get closer to our prospective customers. All our products will be designed and engineered in the UK and China with the support of Indian engineers. These vehicles will be heavily localized, built at our plant in Halol by our engineers conforming to global quality standards and validated and customized for India to suit the Indian road and driving conditions.”

It isn’t just MG Motor India that’s readying an electric vehicle (EV) for India in the form of an SUV. Hyundai Motor has already confirmed that it will be launching the Kona EV in India sometime next year. That means by the time MG Motor India launches its own pure-electric SUV, it would have already gained a direct competitor in the market.