What You Know About MG Motors And What You Don't Know About MG Motors.

Talk to anyone in Motown India, and the story you will hear will be the most difficult and imminent layoffs. But on the 10th floor of the brand new Milestone Experiment Center at MG Motor's office in Gurgaon, the mood is upbeat. A subsidiary of the $ 128 billion Chinese giant Shanghai Auto Industrial Corporation (SAIC), it is busy plotting an aggressive growth path in India. The furniture is still being unchanged. The conference hall is buzzing with meetings. In one of them, the launch

Imagine, with 28,000 bookings, MG Motor has had to temporarily close bookings for its Hector SUV in 2019 - in a shrinking market. Its 46,000-square-foot office space - purchased for Rs 150 crore - reflects SAIC's ambitions in the Indian market. Its journey began in 2017 when it bought General Motors' Halol plant in Gujarat when it exited India's domestic market. Since then, SAIC has been quietly shaping up his India trip with Rajiv Chaba as Managing Director. In India, mo.

Unfortunately, many people are confused about the fate of late entrants such as Kia Motors and MG Motor. However, for four reasons, MG Motor's Indian journey should be closely watched. One, it marks the beginning of Motown China, the world's largest car market in India. Two, the Chinese, gaining confidence at home, is now set to conquer the world amid slow sales - and India will be an important playground. Three, auto multinationals have struggled to break the straggles of Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai.

Tell us a little about Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and how it debuts India with MG Hector?
SAIC wants MG Motor to be a great MNC and not a Chinese company. MG Motor is a British brand owned by the Chinese. This is revealed in many ways - in simple things like me, leading a non-Chinese, company. Our procurement heads are Indian. Out of 1,200 employees, only 20 are Chinese officers. We want MG Motor to be a good MNC that can embrace good corporate publicity.

India is a tough market, and you are already late.
India is a challenging market. Maruti and Hyundai hold a stronghold and multinationals have struggled. We are here to interrupt. The question we have asked ourselves, can we disrupt the market and what can we do to make it happen? It is too early to celebrate but we may not be in a better position with 28,000 bookings and all sold out in a bad market in 2019. Today, our dealers are happiest. AC did not do this.


What is your India game?
By 2022, we expect to have five products and an investment of Rs 5,000 crore. With our e-vehicle EZ scheduled for launch, we want to pitch ourselves as an innovative MNC. Our strategy is built on three pillars - good employees, culture and dealer viability. For example, we will never talk about wholesale numbers (that industry report), but retail sales. We will have only one dealer per city except for NCR and Mumbai. Our deal with dealers is yours.

How is MG Motor's headquarters in India controlled?
They have empowered us to a great extent. Before I joined, they had decided on their launch product - a hatchback. Sub-Rs 5 lakh is the largest car segment in India. But I questioned that strategy. At the time, the XUV500 was the only model in that segment. Thanks for learning from GM, I said let's not look at the clause section. Let's get our fundamentals right, create a consumer and product experience and establish the MG brand.

Let me give you another example. He designed a car with a grill that I was not very happy with and I wanted to change. They listened to me and came back with three options within two weeks. I can't imagine GM or any German or Japanese company that agrees and can forget two weeks in two years. How fast does it move?

In the jobs market, Chinese companies do not have a good reputation.
The hardest part of my job has been getting the best talent. So, you pay more to attract them. Our employee pitch is that we are part of the story of disruption. As an automobile company, we want to think differently. We are actively hiring people from the outer region and at the same time, we realize that they will see things in a new way. Gender diversity is important. In our plant, 31% of the workers are women. We were one.