MG Windsor EV Launched to Compete With ICE Models

Gurugram: In a bid to grab electric vehicle (EV) car market share in the country, JSW MG Motor India on Wednesday launched its first-ever joint venture swanky product – ‘MG Windsor’ electric crossover utility vehicle – to aggressively take on the regular internal combustion engine (ICE) models. The company has also set a target to introduce a new car every four to six months and is eyeing over 50 per cent of its total sales from electric vehicles in 2024.

The new Windsor EV is affordably priced at Rs 9.99 lakh (ex-showroom) in the Indian market and the company plans its bookings of Windsor will start on October 3 and deliveries from the Dussehra Day, ie; October 12. With the launch of the new Windsor EV, now MG Motor has a total of three EVs, including ZS EV and Comet EV. “We want to compete head-on with the main ICE models across automakers with our first joint-venture product MG Windsor EV,” said JSW MG Motor director Parth Jindal in an interaction with the media on the sidelines of the launch.

“EVs are only seen in tier I cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata & Bengaluru etc, but we are targeting to push the EV sales in tier II, III & IV cities as well. Our strategic aim is to convert the fence sitters to change their mind to EVs,” he said, adding that the company wants Windsor EV to be the biggest selling car in our product portfolio and over 50 per cent sales will come from our electric cars by December 2024.

“EV sales are low in the country at about 2 percent of the entire car market, because there are not enough EV models to penetrate its spread in the country. Therefore, we have launched this rich business class EV model at an affordable price,” Mr Jindal explained, adding that To compete with the mainstream car models, the company has strategically priced and this EV will aggressively take on all the mainstream cars priced between Rs 10-11 lakh in the Indian market.

On pricing competition, Rajeev Chaba, CEO emeritus at JSW MG Motor India said that in order to make the EV at par with the mainstream vehicles, we have strategically fixed Windsor EV at an affordable price and for the battery pack, consumers will have to pay only Rs 3.5 per kilometre. “Our pricing of Windsor EV is done in a such a way that the acquisition and the running cost comes close to ICE models. Thus, we have burst the myth that EVs are more expensive than ICE models,” Chaba added.

This way, India will move forward to adopt EVs in a big way and cut huge import bills on fuels. This is cost effective when compared with the mileage of Rs 10 per kilometres as average cost. “In the first seven months of this year, our EV sales volumes have grown 52 per cent,” Chaba said, adding that with Windsor coming in, EV should be more than 50 per cent of our sales.

The Windsor is powered by a 38 kWh Li-ion battery pack and has a range of 331 kms under standard conditions on a single charge. It can be charged in 40 minutes at any DC fast charger. “On the localisation level of Windsor, it starts at a lower level, but in the next 12 to 18 months, we intend to make it to around 80 per cent,” Mr Chaba said.