MG Motor India has stopped any further bookings for the new Hector SUV which has clocked 28,000 orders to date. The car is sold out for 2019. Sales in the first month of launch reached 1,508 units, making it the best selling car in the segment in India.
With waiting period touching up to 8 months, the company now plans to scale up production to 3,000 units a month; as against a current 2,000 units being produced from the company’s Halol plant in Gujarat currently. This will bring down the waiting period considerably.
The company is also considering a second shift, which will give employment to another 500 persons. Talks are on with component suppliers to allow the company to ramp up production in a phased manner. Until these domestic suppliers boost capacities, the company plans to continue importing a few parts. Localization would be the key to competitive pricing. Current localization is at 75 percent with the company planning to increase this sometime soon.
For those who are waiting to get delivery of MG Hector, the company has announced an innovative programme called ‘Worth Waiting For’. Under this reward programme, customers of Hector will get reward points. For every week you have to wait to get delivery, you will get 1,000 points. This means, if your wait time to delivery is 10 weeks, you will get 10,000 points.
These points you can redeem at any of the 120 MG India outlet across India. In exchange, you will get free accessories which will come with 1 yr / 20k kms warranty. In addition to this, MG India has also announced to educate 1 girl child for every 2 weeks waiting period on Hector.
Rajeev Chaba, President & Managing Director, MG Motor India, said, “As part of our commitment to customer satisfaction, our ‘Worth Waiting For’ programme has been further augmented with a unique rewards initiative. Apart from driving the cause of girl child education, the rewards initiative brings delight to our HECTOR customers as they take deliveries.”
Engine options for Hector include a 1.5-litre petrol, a 1.5-litre petrol hybrid and a 2.0-litre turbocharged diesel. Petrol variant offers both 6-speed manual and DCT option, whereas petrol hybrid and diesel variant come with 6-speed manual transmission only. Diesel variant has the highest fuel efficiency of 17.41 kmpl. Hector is offered in four trims – Style, Super, Smart and Sharp, of which maximum bookings have been received for petrol variants of Smart and Sharp.
In terms of safety, Hector offers 6-airbags, ESP, traction control system, hill hold control, ABS with EBD and brake assist, 360° camera view, tyre pressure monitoring system, front parking sensors and Isofix child seat anchors. The SUV is priced in the range of Rs 12.18 – 16.88 lakh and competes with the likes of Mahindra XUV500, Tata Harrier, Jeep Compass, and upcoming Kia Seltos.
