NEW DELHI: MG Motor India, a wholly-owned arm of Chinese auto giant SAIC Motor, on Monday said it will invest close to Rs 5,000 crore in the next five years and ramp up its production capacity over 2,00,000 units per year in a phased manner.
“In the first phase, we are investing Rs 2,000 crore in our Halol plant (Gujarat) and later, we will invest Rs 3,000 crore more to expand our operations. In the first phase, we will have a capacity to manufacture 80,000 to 1 lakh units a year. In the second phase, the plant capacity can go over 2 lakh unit per year,” P Balendran, executive director of MG Motor India told Express on the sidelines of a press conference.
The company also plans to open around 300 customer touch points going forward and wants to increase its headcount to 1,000 by the end of this year. As of now, it has a total employee count of around 150.
Balendran said MG Motor plans to launch one new product each year in India from mid 2019, starting with a compact SUV as it is one of the fastest growing segments in the auto market. The SUV is expected to be in the price range of Rs 8-12 lakh and will compete with established models such as Creta, Brezza and Duster.
However, MG Motor is yet to decide whether the India-bound SUV is going to be a new vehicle or a product from their global line up. “All we can say is that the vehicle will be best-suited for Indian conditions with an aggressive localisation rate of over 80 per cent,” said MG Motor India president and managing director Rajeev Chaba.
Earlier, the Halol plant, where the manufacturing of MG Motor cars will take place, was the production facility for General Motors India cars, a partner of SAIC. Last year, when GM decided to wrap up its India operations, SAIC purchased the assets of the Halol plant and announced its entry in India with the UK-based MG Motor.
When asked if the previous partnership will have any impact on the success of MG Motor, Balendran said, “Then, it was a partnership. This time, it is a 100 per cent owned subsidiary. The present venture is under SAIC’s control, so we’re going to make a difference.”