Semiconductor crisis may remain a concern till June 2022: MG Motor India

MG Motor India said on Thursday that the company is expecting the semiconductor shortage may remain a cause of concern for the Indian automobile sector till the first half of 2022.

A top company executive said that it is also going to expand its presence in the electric vehicle space by launching a new car in the below Rs 20 lakh category. This comes after the company captured over 90 per cent market-share in the above Rs 20-lakh category electric vehicles within a span of one year through the launch of ZS EV. The company saw a 78 per cent jump in electric vehicle brand ZS EV during the January to August period of 2021 to 2,033 units, as compared to 1,142 units.

Gaurav Gupta, Chief Commercial Officer at MG Motor India said that after MG Astor, for which bookings will start in October, the next vehicle that the company will launch in India will be an electric vehicle under Rs 20 lakh category. The company is also exploring options to come up with battery assembly and repair units and also charging infrastructure across the country.

MG Motor India has already partnered with brands like eCharge Bays, Delta and Exicom for providing charging solutions to customers and battery usage services. In addition, companies like Fortum and Tata Power are also roped in to provide DC Fast Charging Infrastructure and Tes-AMM and Attero Recycling for battery recycling.

Gupta said that one of the major concerns for the company now is the semiconductor crisis, because of which delivery of cars are getting delayed. “Because of semiconductor shortage and demand being very high in brands like Hector, we are seeing two to three months of waiting period for delivery,” he said. Gupta added that the company expects the semiconductor shortage to extend till the first half of the next calendar year (2022) and then ease out owing to a possible rise in supply.

During the January to August period of 2021, MG Motors India saw only a marginal increase of over 3 per cent in sales to 29,138 units as compared to 28,162 units during the same period in 2020. The SAIC-owned company had reported a 51 per cent rise in retail sales to 4,315 units in August this year as compared to 2,851 units in August 2020.

“We are consistently selling over 700 units of EVs per month and have so far sold around 3,000 units in total. MG Hector also we have a booking of around 6,000 units now,” he added. The company is also planning to expand its capacity at Halol plant from 80,000 to 100,000. There were also reports that MG Motors was in talks with Ford India for taking over its manufacturing facilities at Chennai and Sanand, on which Gupta refused to comment.