MG Motor India today inaugurated its first showroom, or as the company likes to call it, flagship experience store in Gurugram, Haryana. Located at Milestone Experion Centre, in Sector 15 Gurugram, the new flagship showroom from Morris Garages (MG) Motor India is the first of the 120 centers that will be activated across India. Having said that, the MG India plans to further expand its network to a total of 250 centers across India by September 2019. Today the carmaker also commenced the official bookings for the company’s first car in the country, the MG Hector for a token of ₹ 50,000. The customer test drives will commence from June 15 onward.
Talking to carandbike.com, Rajeev Chaba, President, and Managing Director, MG Motor India, said, “This is in line with our brand purpose of enabling exciting experience every time. So, we thought we will have an experience center or a flagship store, as well call it, of our own and we tried to give a very different experience.” He further added, “This is different than other places, and it goes back to the same thing that, if we need to be successful in this market, which is very tough, we need to do things in a different way, in a disruptive way and make sure that our employees are satisfied, dealers and dealer employees are satisfied, and if this set of people are ok, they will take care of customers. This is not a typical showroom, this is very different!”
Being the company’s first flagship showroom in India, MG Motor has worked towards building an outlet completely different from a typical car showroom, based on the brand’s “Emotional Dynamism” philosophy. The visual cues include a unique facade grill in the shape of an “Upturned Mountain”, at the entry, while inside MG has made use of some creative elements to attract all the 5 senses of its prospective customers who visit the showroom.
The new showroom has been designed to give its customers a taste of both, MG’s past and the present, divided into special sections. This includes a special zone at the entry that pays homage to the brand’s British Heritage, showcasing cultural icons such as the Big Ben, the Union Jack, telephone booths and streetlamps, incorporated as design elements. In fact, there is also a 1965 MG Midget on display inside the showroom. The showroom also comes with a special “LED Video Wall” – a large video wall made from 36 connected TVs plays artfully-created brand videos to further engage visitors. Furthermore, the center also has the MG Cafe within the showroom.
The store also has a special section called the “Engineering Corner” with various vehicle components and the revolutionary 48V Hybrid engine, on display, along with engravings of other state-of-the-art features integrated into MG’s range of internet vehicles. In addition to that, there is also a “Live Vehicle Configurator”, a digital wall that allows prospective customers to select their choice of model, transmission type, and fuel variant, and customize the look and feel, and accessories the SUV accordingly. At 55 inches per screen, the configurator wall has the largest live configurator screen and is set up in a 6-by-6 format (36 screens).
The new facility will also have MG Motor India’s corporate office above it, and the whole company-owned facility has been built under an overall investment of ₹ 150 crore. The carmaker’s first model – the MG Hector SUV is set to be launched in India later this month, and it will be the company’s first connected car for the Indian market. The Hector SUV will be made available in both the petrol and the diesel engines and there’ll also be a petrol hybrid offering up for grabs. The petrol version will get a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine, while the hybrid version will additionally come paired with 48-volt mild-hybrid architecture, as well. The diesel model will get the 2.0-liter engine in the MG Hector is the Fiat sourced Multijet unit which also powers other models in the segment like the Tata Harrier and Jeep Compass.