Young people are increasingly moving more towards electric vehicles (EVs), provided they get good charging infrastructure, said a top official with MG Motor on Thursday.

The company is launching its second EV, Comet, in the next two months, which will be a small car, mainly targeted at city drivers. The price of the car is expected to start at around ₹10 lakh, and will compete with Tata Tiago EV (₹8.69-12 lakh) and Citroen E-C3 priced at ₹11.50-12.43 lakh).

“People who already have a car in the family may look for the Comet initially as their second car, but after proven or people see the car on the roads, then first-time buyers would also go for this car. This is what we feel right now,” Rajeev Chaba, President and Managing Director, MG Motor India, told businessline.

The company did a survey recently called ‘MG Urban Mobility Happiness Index (UMHI)’, commissioned by Nielsen, to understand the level of happiness when it comes to urban travel among Indian car owners from metropolitan cities.

It revealed that almost all respondents faced difficulties due to the lack of parking space in their respective cities.

“Almost 90 per cent of them feel that a compact smart car can reduce their travel time in the city, apart from reducing air pollutions....more than than 80 per cent respondents feel there is air pollution in their city, and 69 per cent respondents consider environment an important factor while purchasing a car,” said Chaba.

Semiconductors

Meanwhile, when asked about semiconductor shortages and the impact on MG’s production, especially EVs where more chips are used, Chaba said overall the issues have improved, but there are some specific issues with certain chips where the company is facing constraints.

“For instance, certain variants at top-end models are suffering because of specific chips. That is kind of things we are seeing now. But, in general, the situation has improved...there were issues, but we are ramping our EVs in a big way. We have increased the availability from our side, so EVs, we are shaping them very well,” he added.

MG is the second-largest EV seller in India after Tata Motors in February sales, according to monthly data shared by Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations, and far ahead of its competitors such as Hyundai (48 units).

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