MG Hector SUV has been ruling the news cycle of the auto industry for since quite some time now. The first product of the Chinese-owned British brand will be the Hector SUV in India and it is due to be launched in the upcoming months. However, ahead of the launch, the president and managing director of the company in India, Rajeev Chaba has stated that the upcoming Hector will be the first affordable 48V mild hybrid SUV in India. The top placed manager at the company stated that the brand will enter the Indian market with a local first approach and rather than imposing a global solution on the local market in India, the company will learn heavily from the domestic market of India in order to resolve the issues with the company. As far as taking on the leaders such as Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai in India are concerned, Chaba stated that the Chinese owned British brand is focusing at the segment where the two major players do not have any products at all. He said that the Hector will not directly compete with any of the cars offered by the two largest carmakers of India.
Chaba further stated that the dealership approach taken by MG Motors in India will be to not go for bigger number of dealers, rather the company will focus on offering better quality of service through a small number of dealerships to ensure optimal customer satisfaction. The MD of MG Motors also stated that they will focus on multiple outlets in a city but only with one dealer. Also he added that the company will not focus on rapid expansion of dealerships and one may not see the initial 40-45 dealers of MG Motors expand to 300 odd dealers after half a decade, rather the company will focus on slow expansion dealers so as to have better control over the customer experience that they can provide through these dealerships.
The president of MG Motors’ Indian division also talked about the hybrid system that will be offered on the Hector and said that the upcoming SUV from the Chinese-owned British brand will come equipped with a 48V mild-hybrid setup. As we already know the company will offer the mild-hybrid option only with the petrol models of Hector. Recent reports suggest that the mild-hybrid system on offer could come with an output of extra 20 Nm to help with the low-end torque and also reduce turbo lag in the upcoming Hector. The mild-hybrid system will also offer better mileage facility on the upcoming MG Hector.
Leaving the 1.5L liter turbocharged petrol engine aside, the other engine on offer on Hector will be a 2L Fiat Multijet turbocharged diesel, the latter being the same one found on Compass (rated for 170 Bhp) and Harrier (rated for 140 Bhp). The diesel engine is supposed to be produce the same kind of output seen on Compass – 170 Bhp of power and 350 Nm. As far as features are concerned, the Chinese SUV will come with 360-degree parking camera, flat-bottomed steering wheel, cruise control, and TPMS. Apart from that the SUV will be equipped with sunroof on top models, LED projector headlamps and tail lamps, Harman Infinity audio system, and 10.4 inch touchscreen infotainment system supporting Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.