Since March this year, the company became a 51:49 joint venture between India’s JSW Group and China’s SAIC. And the Indian partner is now pitching in with solutions to increase overall local content of the company’s electric vehicles. CEO Emeritus Rajeev Chaba said today that the JV was initially importing batteries for its EV portfolio but it has now started assembly of batteries at the Hallol plant. And eventually, battery cells will also be sourced locally since JV partner JSW Group has already declared its intention to start manufacturing cells. As of now, there is no local cell manufacturing so all EV OEMs are currently importing these, largely from China.
“We are increasing localisation across products. In the Comet, localisation is already 60% and in the ZS EV, it is now 30-40%. In the new product, the MG Windsor CUV, which we will launch in a few weeks, localisation would eventually reach 80%,” Chaba said. The MG Windsor Compact Utility Vehicle is expected to be priced between MG Motor India’s existing electric vehicles, Comet and ZS EV, below the INR 20 lakh mark.
To a question about the company’s sales performance in the EV space, Chaba said that with just two products, JSW MG Motor India was already at 17% share of the EV market and “this year, we aim to grow at 250% over last year”. About 40% of the company’s sales are electric vehicles now.
To strengthen the EV ecosystem, JSW MG Motor India today also launched eHUB, a unified charging platform, designed to provide access to almost the entire charging network currently available in India. JSW MG Motor India has inked partnerships with leading charging solution providers such as Adani Total Energies, BPCL, Chargezone, Glida and HPCL for eHUB. A user can reserve a charging slot, navigate to the charging station, make payment and charge her vehicle seamlessly by using eHUB and Chaba said that the application was not restricted to just MG users. Consumers driving vehicles from any other OEM can also use the app to book their charging slots. This solution will ease range anxiety and promote EVs for the entire industry.
The company also introduced project REVIVE, an initiative in partnership with TERI, Lohum and BatX, aimed at repurposing EV batteries beyond cars to provide a second life as renewable energy storage systems for sustainable community applications. This initiative would promote a circular economy, eliminate waste and promote reuse and repair of batteries. The carmaker also announced that all upcoming MG cars will feature the MG-Jio Innovative Connectivity Platform (MG-Jio ICP) as a standard inclusion. This is a technology stack which introduces an MG App Store for in-car gaming, entertainment and learning.
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