It was earlier this week that MG Motor India officially revealed the Astor compact SUV in the country. Expected to be launched in the coming weeks, it is essentially a petrol-powered version of the ZS EV, which is already on sale in India. The Chinese-owned British carmaker expects the soon-to-be-launched compact SUV to be a volume generator. As reported by ETAuto, the brand is expected to outperform the market this year and expects to double its monthly volumes by 2022 with the launch of the Astor SUV.
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MG Motor India sold 4315 units in August 2021
Rajeev Chaba, President and Managing Director, MG Motor India told ETAuto, "Right now, we do not have clarity on the availability of parts with chips. We are facing problems in every car line. Once supplies stabilise, we are confident we should be able to double (overall) volumes to 7,000-8,000 units every month."
The automaker is currently operating at just 60 to 70 per cent of its potential capacity due to the shortage of semiconductors. The carmaker expects the chip supply constraints to improve by the first quarter of the next year. He further said that it may take up to a year for the situation to completely normalise.
Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and chip shortage, the carmaker will go ahead with its plans to ramp up production capacity at its Halol manufacturing plant in Gujarat. The company aims to sell about 80,000 to 1 lakh units in 2022. The automaker is eyeing to accomplish 50,000 units sales this year.
The MG Astor is essentially the petrol-powered version of the MG ZS EV.
The MG Astor will be the first SUV in the segment to get an AI-powered personal assistant and ADAS with level 2 autonomous driving technology. It will be a petrol-only SUV offered with two engines to choose from. While the former is a new 1.5-litre naturally aspirated motor tuned to churn out 108 bhp and 144 Nm of peak torque, the latter is a 1.3-litre turbocharged unit capable of making 138 bhp and 220 Nm of peak torque. This 1.5-litre petrol will come mated to a manual gearbox and an 8-speed CVT. The turbocharged petrol engine will get a 6-speed automatic torque converter unit as standard. When launched, it will compete against the likes of the Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos.
