High-tech SUVs catch the fancy of Indian buyers

PUNE: At a time when the car market is hit by sluggish sales with no visible signs of recovery, new cars equipped with advanced tech features are selling like hot cakes in Asia’s third largest car market.

Sold out for the calendar year 2019 with over 21,000 bookings within 45 days of opening booking, the British car maker Morris Garages (MG) Motor, owned by the Chinese car giant SAIC Motor, closed bookings for its first model in India, MG Hector SUV, on Thursday.

Even the new entrant Kia Motors, a South Korean brand, has also clocked brisk sale of over 6,000 units of its maiden model, the Kia Seltos SUV, on the first day of opening bookings on June 16, bringing much-needed cheers to the beleaguered industry.

MG Hector SUVs’ top two variants, called Smart and Sharp, are seeing the highest demand from buyers, with over 50 per cent reservations for the petrol variants.

The buyers have rushed for the MG Hector SUV because it is India's first connected car, featuring a new advanced connectivity system called i-Smart next-generation system.

MG Hector SUV was launched last month priced between Rs 12.18 lakh to Rs 16.88 lakh. Apart from the aggressive pricing, the company’s ‘MG Shield’ aftersales initiative for the SUV also boosted buyer confidence.

“Our first product, MG Hector, has received an overwhelming response and we are unable to cater to such high initial demand,” Rajeev Chaba, President & MD, MG Motor India, said in a statement.

Therefore, the company is closing bookings temporarily as this will help ensure timely and orderly deliveries of the vehicle, he said.

“We are also working with our component suppliers to ramp up production in a gradual manner,” Chaba said.

Chaba said the company will increase production of the SUV to 3,000 units a month from October against the current capacity of 2,000 units a month at its Halol plant in Gujarat.

Kia Motors also received 6,046 bookings on the first day, out of which 1,628 were made via the official website with a down payment of Rs 25,000.

According to company sources, the Kia Seltos SUV, to be launched on August 22, will be aggressively priced between Rs 11 lakh to Rs 17 lakh at pan-India showroom.

It will compete with the Hyundai Creta, Renault Captur, Nissan Kicks, Tata Harrier, Mahindra XUV500, and the MG Hector SUVs.

“These substantial booking numbers reflect customer confidence that the brand has been able to garner prior to the Seltos SUV launch,” Manohar Bhat, Vice President and Hea-Sales & Marketing at Kia Motors India told Financial Chronicle.

He said the mid-SUV Seltos is BS VI emission norm compliant is available in both petrol and diesel, with both manual and automatic options in all powertrains, making it an attractive proposition.