MG Motor India expects to clock a quarter of its sales from EVs this year

MG Motor India, which faced disruptions in production through most of the past one year, said with an expected improvement in the supply chain in the second half of 2023, it will be able to clock a quarter of its sales from electric vehicles (EVs) this year.

While limitations continue in availability of components amid global challenges, from the Russia-Ukraine war to logistical delays in intercontinental movement, supplies have started showing an improvement, said Gaurav Gupta, deputy managing director, MG Motor India.

“We have started ramping up operations with easing of constraints in the supply chain. We will hold on to our initial estimates of clocking a quarter of our sales from EVs in the ongoing calendar year,” he said.

He said the company’s pipeline remains healthy and that the company is doubling down on its efforts to resolve supply chain mismatches and upping production to reduce the waiting period on its vehicles.

“We have now had a full month of sales of the Comet EV, which is our most affordable car. We will steadily launch the car across markets in India. Meanwhile, we have increased production of the ZS EV, which is now doing about 600 units every month. This, we feel, is a good number given its price points,” said Gupta.

MG Motor India has sold about 10,000 units of the ZS EV since its launch in the country. The company additionally sold 1,914 units of Comet EV last quarter, as per data available with the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). The company started deliveries of the vehicle from May 22. It is working to put in place a production capacity of 3,000 units per month for the Comet EV at its manufacturing facility in Halol, Gujarat.

With several affordable EVs set to hit the road through the year, the company said sales of electric passenger vehicles should more than double in 2023. Around 50,000 EVs were sold in the country in 2022.

MG Motor India intends to sell the Comet EV largely for use by personal buyers in India. It has not actively considered selling the car to fleet operators or exporting it on a scale to other countries but said it will be open to evaluating such opportunities.

Overall, MG Motor India is looking to expand sales to 80,000-100,000 units this year, up from 48,000 units in 2022.

“We are optimistic about growth prospects in the market given the resilience of the economy in India. The fundamentals here are stable and with the spread of the monsoons, we expect the demand momentum to remain healthy going ahead,” said Gupta.