The Tata Tiago EV is on everybody’s minds right now, partially due to the low-cost appeal, with prices starting from Rs 8.49 lakhs as part of an extended introductory offer period. Meanwhile, other EV makers, including Morris Garages (MG), are also vying to grab some of the market share from Tata Motors. To this end, the company is going to unveil its compact electric car, known as the MG City EV sometime between April and June of next year.
Autocar reports that the City EV is based on the Wuling Air EV, which sells in markets like Indonesia. We’re also learning that despite the smaller profile, the upcoming MG City EV may not be as affordable as the Tiago EV. It seems like the higher pricing could be justified by the hardware onboard MG’s upcoming compact EV. As you can see from the concept image below, the City EV is a two-door car, which means it’s smaller than Tata’s new electric hatchback.
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Talking about the company’s pricing strategy, President and Managing Director at MG India, Rajeev Chaba said, “We don’t believe in giving the proposition of the cheapest car in its segment. Our focus rather is on offering good value along with contemporary technologies to our customers. We are looking at creating our own segment and providing a unique urban-mobility solution with our new EV.”
Dual 10.25-inch screens on the MG City EV
From what we know so far, the MG City EV will include two 10.25-inch screens, with one acting as a touchscreen infotainment screen and the other as a non-touchscreen instrument cluster. The existing set of MG’s connected car features will also be available with the upcoming compact EV. There isn’t enough information on the estimated range and the power this EV would draw.
Part of the reason for the higher price could be due to the fact that MG has to build the City EV from the ground up, leveraging the company’s customized electric platform. Whereas Tata Motors already had the ICE version of the Tiago EV for reference, so it didn’t need to spend a lot of time designing the new EV. Either way, MG will need to keep the pricing reasonable in order to make an impact on the highly competitive EV business.
To counter the cost increase, MG plans to source up to 60% of the EV’s components locally. “We have to see that even the cells should be produced locally to reduce dependence on imports,” Chaba went on to say.
It certainly seems like 2023 will be a busy time for electric cars, although the Indian EV market is pretty crowded already. With Mahindra all set to launch its range of EVs beginning next year and new entrants all set to join the fray, we’re pretty excited about the future of EVs in the country.
Via: Autocar India