MG Motor India has re-opened booking for its Hector SUV, after temporarily closing order books in July. The carmaker had received 28,000 orders in the first round of bookings and had announced the Hector was sold out for 2019. Overwhelming demand and a capacity crunch at MG’s plant in Halol, Gujarat meant the waiting period for some of the original orders extended beyond 7 months. MG will ramp up production by November and an official announcement mentions that of the original bookings, 15,000 orders are on ‘priority wait list’ and the waiting time is at an average of 3-4 months.
What’s important to highlight is that MG has used the re-opening of order books as an opportunity to up Hector prices. The Hector range now starts at Rs 12.48 lakh (ex-showroom, India) and tops off at Rs 17.28 lakh. The new prices reflect a Rs 30,000-40,000 increase in prices, depending on version.
The new prices are effective on bookings made from September 25, 2019. The MG Hector is likely to see another price revision closer to April 2020 when its powertrains are upgraded to BS6-spec. You can expect a marginal bump up in prices for the petrols and a substantial increase in prices for the diesels owing to the significant upgrades needed for the engines to meet the stringent emission standards.
MG’s second product for India, theall-electric ZS EV SUVcomes soon, while 2020 will the arrival of thethree row version of the Hectorthat has been spied testing.
Rivan RS 
Viraaj Bhatnagar
Uday Singh
Suraj Viswanathan
