MG Motor, a ressurected British car brand by Chinese ownership, will launch its first SUV – the Hector – in a few months from now. The MG Hector has been spied on what appears to be a TVC in London ahead of its official India- launch. Now that the TVC is being shot, the launch of the SUV should just be a few months away from launch, if not a few weeks away. Here are a couple of spyshots courtesy Hormazd Sorabjee.
As the spyshots indicate, the MG Hector is quite a large SUV, based as it is on the Baojun 530. The Baojun 530 SUV is sold mainly in the Chinese market, by SAIC, which is one of China’s biggest automakers. In India though, the Baojun 530 will get re-badging, a dash of restyling, and will be called the MG Hector.
It’ll be produced at the former General Motors factory in Halol, Gujarat, which SAIC recently bought from the American automaker following the latter’s exit from the Indian market. To keep pricing competitive, MG Motor is said to have extensively localized the Hector SUV, which is expected to take on the likes of the Jeep Compass and Tata Harrier.
The MG Hector will be offered with two engine options – a 1.5 liter turbocharged petrol and a 2 liter Fiat Multijet turbocharged diesel. The petrol motor will put out about 140 Bhp-250 Nm, which makes it less powerful than the Jeep Compass, whose 1.4 liter turbo petrol motor churns out 160 Bhp-250 Nm.
Like the Compass Petrol, the MG Hector’s petrol variants will be offered with 6 speed manual and 7 speed twin clutch automatic gearboxes. The automatic gearbox will also be offered with paddle shifters. The diesel is expected to be a manual-only affair, with a 6 speed gearbox handling torque transmission to the front wheels.
The diesel motor is likely to have an identical state of tune to that of the Jeep Compass – 170 Bhp-350 Nm. What remains to be seen though is whether MG offers an all wheel drive layout on the Hector, or simply chooses to go with front wheel drive layout as standard. For now, there’s not much information about this. What we do know though is that MG Motor will stuff the Hector with features.
From a 360 degree parking camera, flat bottomed steering wheel to cruise control and tyre pressure monitoring, the Hector promises to be a loaded SUV. Prominent features will include a dual-tone dashboard, a sunroof available in two sizes, a flat rear floor for maximum space, LED projector headlamps, LED tail lamps, Harman Infinity audio system, a 10.4 inch touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and leather seats. As for pricing, expect the MG Hector to straddle the Rs. 15-20 lakh marks.
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