MG Motor India’s Hector mid-size SUV garnered 1,508 units in July 2019 to beat the total sales of Nissan, Skoda and Fiat
MG Motor India introduced the Hector in June 2019 with huge anticipation and in just over three weeks of its market debut, the mid-size SUV was sold out for the whole year as reservation had stopped. With bookings of over 21,000 units, the overwhelming response has prompted MG to ramp up the production of the Hector at its Halol plant in Gujarat.
The high-spec Smart and Sharp variants have received the major bookings as 50 per cent of the reserved customers preferred the petrol variants in total. One of the key reasons for the Hector’s success is the aggressive starting price of Rs. 12.18 lakh for the base Style petrol while the top-end costs Rs. 16.88 lakh for the Sharp diesel manual (both prices, ex-showroom).
In its very first month, the Hector registered a cumulative sales of 1,508 units and it led to the brand beating domestic numbers of Nissan, Skoda and Fiat as the companies recorded 1,304, 1,076 and 511 units respectively. A good start for MG’s local operations and it will be interesting to see whether it can maintain the momentum or not (or go even better) in the coming months.
While the Hector’s bookings are expected to resume soon in India with deliveries in 2020, MG is already preparing for its second product, as the ZS EV will debut this December before the arrival of the seven-seater Hector before April 2020.
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| Manufacturer (+/-%) | July 2019 |
| 1. Maruti Suzuki (-36.8%) | 96,400 |
| 2. Hyundai (-10.3%) | 39,010 |
| 3. Mahindra (-6.5%) | 16,800 |
| 4. Tata Motors (-38.6%) | 10,485 |
| 5. Toyota (-23.8%) | 10,423 |
| 6. Honda (-48.7%) | 10,250 |
| 7. Ford (-19.6%) | 6,284 |
| 8. Renault (-41.1%) | 3,660 |
| 9. Volkswagen(1.4%) | 2,500 |
| 10. MG | 1,508 |
| 11. Nissan (-53.5%) | 1,304 |
| 12. Skoda (-14.6%) | 1,304 |
The three-row Hector will compete directly against the upcoming Tata Buzzard and it has already been previewed through the seven-seat Wuling Almaz at the 2019 GIIAS – a derivative of the Baojun 530 sold in China just as the Hector. The Hector is powered by a 143 PS 1.5-litre petrol and 170 PS 2.0-litre diesel engines.
Some of the highlighting features in the MG Hector are 10-4-inch vertically-positioned touchscreen infotainment with Gaana premium account and TomTom navigation, embedded SIM card with internet connectivity features, Artificial Intelligence-based voice assistant system, segment-largest panoramic sunroof, and so on.