The capital will be utilised to treble production capacity to 300,000 units per annum at the company’s manufacturing site in Halol (Gujarat) and launch five new vehicles which would include a combination of electric and internal combustion engine (petrol/diesel) models, Rajeev Chaba, Chairman Emeritus, JSW MG Motor India told ET.
MG Motor India has so far invested Rs 7000 crore in India. Chaba said, “We are investing Rs 2000 crore to ramp up production in Halol. The capacity enhancement with the establishment of our second plant on the site will be complete by the end of next year. The investments in bringing in the five new models will be over and above this.”
The first of the five vehicles – an electric crossover utility vehicle Cloud EV – is scheduled for launch around the festive season of this year. This will be the first new car introduction for the automaker whose owner China’s SAIC Motor and JSW Group formed a joint venture to run MG Motor’s operations in India.
Chaba said, the company currently has two electric cars for sale in the local market, both of which are seeing healthy traction. Nearly 40% of the company’s volumes are coming in from the Comet EV and ZS EV. The Comet EV is priced between Rs 7-9.5 lakh, the ZSEV comes for upwards of Rs 20 lakh. The third vehicle will address customers in the Rs 10-20 lakh bracket, adding to EV sales of JSW MG.
Chaba is confident of electric car sales growing in the Indian market, despite the slowdown in sales growth in the segment. “In the first five months, 45,000 EVs have been sold, which is approximately 17-18% growth. With the new launches this year – from 93,000 (in 2023 we will go) to 1,20,000 (in 2024), a decent 30% growth. Now it is not as high as last year’s growth, but if the overall industry is going to grow by 7-8%, the EV market will grow by 30%, which is not bad”, he informed.EVs currently comprise about 2% of all PVs sold in India. This is expected to rise to about 15-20% by 2030.This calendar year, the company is expecting to sell 70,000 units overall, Chaba said. The company sold about 60,000 vehicles in the local market last year, including the Comet and ZS EV models.
Separately, Chaba saidJSW MG Motor India has rolled out the Employee Stock Options program for its 2,500 employees to Indianise the company. Chaba added the company wants to create an “Infosys movement in the automotive industry,” which leads to “wealth creation and wealth distribution”.
Post execution, JSW MG Motor India will be 51% owned by Indians and the balance by the Chinese. “As things progress, the Chinese stake will probably dilute further (through an IPO). We have already announced the scheme and sent it to both shareholders. And hopefully, we will be able to create that kind of wealth in the next three to five years,” Chaba said.
JSW Group has a 35% stake in the JV company, 11% is held by financial investors, 5% by employees, and the balance by Chinese partner SAIC, which owns the brand MG.
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