MG Motor India is considering starting an additional shift at Gujarat’s Halol manufacturing plant to meet demand for its vehicles. The company is planning to recruit 1,000 workers, directly and indirectly, at the plant by the end of 2021 to ramp up production for the launch of a midsize sports utility vehicle.
Currently, the company has 2,500 employees at the plant. The new vehicle, which will be introduced in the third quarter of the ongoing calendar year, will compete with the likes of Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos.
“The robustness of demand has continued into the new year. We are seeing green shoots in the economy,” MG Motor India president Rajeev Chaba told ET. “With Covid-19 cases falling and introduction of vaccines around the corner, consumer sentiments are positive. We are confident of bettering industry performance in 2021… We would have to add an extra shift at our facility for launching our fourth product later this year.”
The company currently sells Hector, Gloster and ZS EV SUVs. It registered 5,000 fresh bookings for Hector and 200 orders for ZS EV in December.
The company is in the process of investing Rs 1,000 crore to increase production capacity at Halol to 100,000 units per annum, from the initial 75,000-80,000 units. It has also firmed up plans to invest an additional Rs 500 crore to increase localisation levels and enhance production capacity of its vendors. “The Rs 500 crore will be in addition to Rs 4,000 crore we have already committed to the market. We want to deepen localisation levels of our vehicles,” said Chaba.
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