MG Motor India is close to investing ₹1,500 crore towards expansion of its plant capacity at Halol and hiring around 1,000 people to increase the shifts at the facility.

The company had last year announced an investment of ₹1,000 crore to expand capacity at Halol (Gujarat). As demand grows, it will increase the number of shifts to two in certain areas and third in some others. The plant now products 75,000-80,000 units a year, and can be expanded to one lakh units a year.

“We hope to do 75 per cent more than last year in terms of volumes. We are targeting around 50,000 units to sell this year from 28,000 last year (retail sales). So we need to increase shifts and the number of employees this year,” Rajeev Chaba, President and Managing Director, MG Motor India, told BusinessLine on the sidelines of the launch of the new Hector on Thursday.

The 2021 range of Hector has two new options — six- and seven-seater — apart from the facelifted five-seater. While the five seater is priced between ₹12.90 lakh and ₹18.33 lakh, the six-seater is priced at ₹16 lakh to ₹19.13 lakh and the seven-seater at ₹13.35 lakh to ₹18.33 lakh (all ex-showroom, India).

Sales rise

The industry sales fell 18 per cent last year but MG's sales rose around 77 per cent. This year, while the industry is expected to grow 15-20 per cent, MG is expected to grow around 75 per cent, Chaba added.

The expansion will happen over the next few months and, by the end of this year, the company will have made an investment of ₹4,500 crore since MG's entry into India, and have 3,500 employees directly and indirectly, he said.

“We are seeing robustness in demand, and we hope the good momentum of Hector will continue. Our ZS EV also will come in 2021 with enhanced features and then a smaller SUV than Hector will also be launched this year,” Chaba said.

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