SAIC’s MG Motor brand is set to launch an electric microcar for global markets based on the platform of the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture’s Mini EV, which is extremely popular in China. The diminutive electric car is manufactured by a Chinese joint venture consisting of SAIC, General Motors, and Wuling. SAIC, which is owned by the Chinese government, also owns the MG brand, having purchased it some years ago as the British auto industry imploded. According to Cartoq, a version of the Wuling Mini EV is coming to India, where it will be sold as the MG E230 and will qualify as the least expensive electric car sold in that country.
According to the report in Auto Car India, the MG E230 will have a battery pack with 20 kWh energy content for a range of 150 kilometers and will be available from early 2023. The exact dimensions of the vehicle are not yet known, but it is said to be based on SAIC-GM-Wuling’s Global Small Electric Vehicle (GSEV) platform. The Nano EV on this platform is only 2.50 meters long, while the well-known Mini EV is 2.92 meters long. Besides the Wuling subcompact, the platform is also used for cars of the Baojun brand, which are offered as E100, E200, E300, and E300 Plus. There are no photos of the MG E230 yet but we are expecting it to look very similar to the Baojun E300 Plus.
MG E230 could have a possible price range of ₹ 10 Lakh, which is equivalent to about 11,900 euros. MG has so far sold the ZS EV as an electric car in India, which is priced in the country from the equivalent of just under 26,000 euros.
The carmaker has already teased its upcoming EV for our market. In an official statement last year, MG Motor India president and managing director, Rajeev Chaba, had said that the company’s next launch will be an “electric crossover based on a global platform”. He’d further added that the EV will be launched by the end of the financial year 2023 and that it will be “customized for range, and Indian regulations and customer tastes”. He had also noted that the model will be “a mass-market EV for all the emerging markets, including India.” That sounds like India may just be one of the countries where the diminutive EV will be sold, and India is a testing market.
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