Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Electric Cars (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/electric-cars/)

-   -   MG Cloud spotted testing in India. EDIT: Named Windsor (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/electric-cars/283252-mg-cloud-spotted-testing-india-edit-named-windsor-20.html)

Topup your car like you do for mobile and Ta-da!
MG surely knows how to make some noise(oversmart!?) and attract people's interest, first with Internet Inside and now with BAAS. While every manufacturer is facing blackslashing for subscription mode to access features in their cars, MG came up with a brilliant way to implement it from the masses and opened a new gate.

MG may have good intentions, but the dealers approach will be the major red flag. We all knew how notorious Indian dealers are for deceiving customers. With no laws or government assistance to protect consumers from dealer atrocities, I am uncertain about where this will end after 3 years. {Just type Dealer Scam in the team-bhp search box and you will understand what I'm concerned about}

Regardless of how much explanation you give for '*', you'll always have questions in the mind.

@ferrarirules Do we need to pay a specific amount (returnable) to ensure battery security and prevent swapping or any wrongdoings?

What a mess of a launch. How could they have not seen this coming?

This is just another case if companies thinking we're fools, that we'll lap up their story of supposed altruistic intentions of making ECs more accessible to the masses.They're doing this to make more money, period.

Such a shame because the product appears to be quite well-rounded otherwise.

First impressions leave a mark on consumers, MG.

Regardless of how the hard product turns out to be, this launch is going to leave a sour taste.

Indians still perceive a car as an emotional purchase, MG. No, this has not and likely will not change in the near future. I'm not sure most people will be okay with the mental block, as someone put it, of not having complete ownership of their car. At least with a bank loan you have the knowledge that the payments will end, eventually.

So, the 3.5 rs per km is just the plan which has minimum per km running rental but has the caveat of a minimum1500 km to be paid each month. So I suppose the other plans which have a lower monthly usage threshold, which would be useful for those with lower running, will have higher per km rental. This service does not seem to be useful for any type of customer. What is the target consumer they are hoping would find this attaractive?

This launch has turned into a mathematical exercise rl:

This minimum 1500km charge ~ approx 6200 bucks might make sense for someone who has a regular 35-40km daily drive. But what if -

For one month there is almost no running - do I still have to pay for the 1500km?

For the subsequent month I have a planned trip of 1800km - do I have to pay per km over and above 1500km or are there steps of like 500km - 2000, 2500 and so on?

Do I get credits for pending Kms from a particular month and they get rolled over to the subsequent month?

Again more questions than answers :Frustrati

We now have two messy launches from two manufacturers, one after the other. First, Hyundai decided not to offer a panoramic sunroof with the diesel variants, and now this. I feel MG has shot itself in the foot with*this*strategy.

The tenure is not clear in the FAQs. But there has to be a tenure if I am supposed to pay the balance amount at resale.

The financier will have to tell the total price as you need to pay the balance for resale. But had the battery price been told today wouldn't you have known the ex-showroom price of the complete car and none of the youtube videos could have written in their title - "MG Windsor launched @ Rs.9.99 lakhs"

You pay for everything, the car and battery, at resale. Essentially you close all loans before reselling the car. So for second buyer, it is just a normal car which he bought for X lakh ruppees

There is no battery security or anything similar because the subscription is nothing but a loan. Anything happens you close the loan and pay the financier. The battery essentially is your property

Just writing responses, there is a question that came to my mind which is not answered by FAQs.

Say I subscribe to 3-60 buyback plan, will MG pay back for both car and battery? If not battery, do I close the loan for the battery?

I don’t quite understand what “minimum 1500km” means. Do I have to drive 1500km/month to avail the 3.5/km price, or do I have to pay at least 1500*3.5 every month even if I don’t drive at all?

In that case, who exactly does MG want to sell to?

High running/fleets -> Small battery pack + subscription cost would exceed difference to rivals pretty quick.

Occasional drivers/second car -> You’ll have to shell out 63k a year even if it’s sitting idle.


The one not-so-niche use case I can see is as a chauffeur driven car with consistent but limited use about 25km a day, eg. to and from work or for school runs in places with bad public transport.

Here’s how that could go: buy a Windsor for 10L+tax, use it for approximately 1500km/month for exactly 3 years or 54000km, spending 1.9L + charging. Sell it back to MG and get back the 6L+something they’ve guaranteed. Your TOC is 5.9L+charging+tax-something for 3 years. I am interested in knowing how that compares to a similarly equipped variant of, say, a Nexon EV/XUV400. Not to mention the Creta EV and eVX coming next year.

Maybe I’m being biased here as I don’t fit into whatever kind of buyer MG is targeting, I just think the car would have been able to play its cards (like the rear seat) much better if it had been positioned as a fixed-price Honda City rival or even more.

Min 1500km / month is not for all financers. There might be multiple financing plans from multiple financers. Below are the snippets from FAQs.





financing partners like Bajaj Finance Limited, Herofin Corp, VidyutTech Services Private Limited, Ecofy | Autovert Technologies Private Limited are onboarded.

Link - https://www.mgmotor.co.in/vehicles/w...india/baas-faq

Ex showroom will be shared before Oct 3rd, when the booking starts

https://youtu.be/1dwcWvTdugg?si=Wi3hXhGWaKSbTaTl

This is exactly my use case and I still can't fathom why the Windsor is better over a Punch.ev especially considering the base variant does not have all the bells and whistles which a Punch or Nexon mid or top end will have. I really want it to make sense because I'm a sucker for the MPV form but the math is just not mathing.

May be we can expect the actual ex-showroom prices and full buying option at that time.

So if at the time of resale the battery will be also be sold to 2nd owner. I can only draw following conclusions.

1. 1st owner cannot buy battery.
2. This car is better bought used.
3. To know the price of battery you need to first buy and then sell it.

They have cracked the battery price problem and the resale problem in one go. Migrane problem complimentary.

rl:

Looks like sense is prevailing and MG (rather banks) are going to make BaaS optional (atleast early payout). Need to see if banks will enforce a lock-in period. I hope not.

So battery is going to be a fixed cost. I don’t know why MG created unnecessary confusion with terms like rental, never ending recurring cost etc etc.

I think Windsor again makes sense. Hoping battery cost is competitive.

Going by the FAQ, MG is getting paid for the battery as well as car. The customer is paying the financial institution for the battery, not MG.

Let's say the battery costs 4,00,000 and put 7 year loan at 9.1% interest rate, you are looking at 6456 as a monthly EMI, which is roughly about 1500 km * 4.13 Rs/km = 6195 per month.

So how can the financial institution charge usage based EMI for a fixed cost commodity

rl: As funny as this statement is, I don't think this is realistic. No customer will give MG sales without knowing this number.

Am looking at Windsor seriously, because I simply can't see myself dealing with the HV critical and battery issues that many Tata EV owners are dealing with. I've been reading through ZS EV thread, and the owners are not seeing those headaches.

Honestly BaaS would have made sense as a customer for Tata, given their current battery shenanigans.