Team-BHP - MG Cloud spotted testing in India. EDIT: Named Windsor

Well, if you can't convince them, then confuse them! This is what comes to my mind after reading about the BaaS - Battery as a Service with countless number of ifs and buts (read *). Also, these conditions are subject to company policy updates, correct me if I'm wrong.

Expecting MG's SAs to have looong discussions with customers explaining all this.

Having said all this, the introductory price with features on offer and space in the vehicle is drool worthy.

https://youtu.be/SFvKy6dGGII?si=0xJFg4HRcmovcxlS

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dabhi73 (Post 5840986)

Please let me know if MG has mentioned about how are they going to count the distance. It seems they will fit GPS or other navigation system for this purpose. This will expose their customer's whereabouts and also all his commute which I think is a great threat to privacy. I will be very much sceptical to share this data and that too to Chinese company. I think this is very dangerous.

Onboard GPS and customer travel data synced to their server which will be used to assess the running kms -- if that is the way of counting traversed distance then it is indeed raises some privacy concerns.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrarirules (Post 5840881)

What about insurance for the battery?
What about the time when you want to get rid of the car, you have to residual price of the battery (if any)?
Does RTO allow a RC to have two hypothecations?

Battery is completely owned by MG. You don't need to worry about it.
When it comes to the buy back (after 3 years), you sell them just the car at 60% of the cost (6.6 lacs). At least that's what I have understood.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrarirules (Post 5840881)

The more I read about it more I feel, it is a borderline ponzi scheme. Where they are luring the customer with Rs. 9.99 lakh sticker price but as the customer gets into the details. He/She realizes what did they get into. All this to get the headlines like they got on teambhp as well "MG Windsor EV launched at Rs.9.99 lakh".

If you think about it, it is just like buying a ICE car (at an ICE car price) and pay for the fuel (which works out to be much cheaper than the fuel expense).
Good part is, you don't need to worry about the deterioration or any other issues with the battery.
May be they should also provide the option for customers to buy the car which the battery which will add another 10 lacs for those who don't like this scheme.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkv_hunter (Post 5839870)

Agree on this. I think they are trying to do too much in one go. Should ideally be optional. It will be interesting how will they collect the rental. What if someone doesn’t pay. Recovering money is not an easy job, even banks struggle and have specialised teams for collections. They are getting themselves into something which is not meant for a car company to manage.

I guess, It will be like mobile sim card with prepaid and postpaid options. Minimum billing will be for 1500kms monthly. That comes to Rs.5500-6000. in case if you don't use the car for 1500kms. Validity will expire. lol:

Website FAQ mentions Rs 3,5 per Km Battery and Rs 1 per Km additionally as charging. Is this Rs 1 only until the first 12 months or forever? In case of later, the true costs will be Rs 4,5 Per KM plus Charging expenses.

We will soon know the Battery price value shortly as that is essentially the finance part in addition to the vehicle loan if any. The seller has to pay back this amount if one wants to sell the car before 3 years or directly to a third party.

Little hard to understand the rationale for a lifetime warranty to the original owner. I can foresee a lot of changes happening in a few months including the possibility of buying a car with a battery.

Any idea of the higher variant prices? I could not find this information.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guna (Post 5841054)

No it is not owned by MG. It is a lease agreement between financier (who has paid MG for the battery) and the owner
1. You will pay some upfront amount for signing the lease agreement.
2. The lease payment will be fixed based on the monthly number of kms you would want to drive or if you want . The lease agreement will have a tenure and post completion of the tenure you will get the battery
3. As it is a lease, the lesse will be responsible for insurance
4. Once the lease tenure is over either you would have paid the price of the battery or you will have to pay the residual price
5. If you have to break the lease, you want to sell the car. You will pay the balance lease amount to end the lease

Please go through this post containing the BaaS faqs which are taken from MG site

For the buyback, it is nothing new. It is available for all MG cars. You have to pay upfront fees for the buyback plan and it is limited to 60,000 kms in 3 years. So you can drive on an average 1666 kms per month. There could be more t&c as well

I am surprised that so many BHPians are falling for MG shenanigans.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbanator (Post 5841142)

The FAQ means that you pay Rs. 3.5 per km for lease and Rs 1 per km will be your assumed charging cost when you charge at home

The variant pricing is not released. It is expected on 3rd Oct

So MG has further complicated the matter by updating the following on their website:

Quote:

We have different finance partners under this program wherein No minimum running per month is offered. For certain financier there is minimum running of 1500km per month(₹3.5 per km). It is advisable to review the specific terms provided by each financer to choose the best option for your needs

Getting everyone to talk about the car and it's features is one thing. Keeping everyone guessing about what exactly is on offer is another.

Bottomline: It will all boil down to that one pager cost sheet which sales people carry. Hope they will simplify the cost structure, otherwise they'll have a lot of walk ins, but a poor conversion ratio.

With 18% GST the monthly Lease rental for battery would be around Rs 6200. Add Rs. 1.5/km home charging price. For 1500 Kms the total will be around Rs 8,500/month. For this amout at this point it would be better to spend 2-3 k more per month and get an ICE car than go through the hassles of owning an EV.

MG has unnecessarily complicated life. They could have just launched this vehicle for 12.99 - 18.99 and still gotten lots of positive feedback.

MG Cloud spotted testing in India. EDIT: Named Windsor-mgspare.png

Looks like MG is offering a steel wheel and a space saver tyre as an accessory. Bummer its not included in the price, but thankful its at least there. Getting a spare fitted as a "jugaad" is too much of a headache and I bow my head to the brave souls who buy and drive cars with regular tyres and just a punture repair kit ......

Now all they have to do is to clearly annouce the "outright buy" prices and put this BaaS nonsense behind them. Let that just that- another option, but don't die on that battlefield.

And oh yes, wait for a couple of months for hard data, and then please sack whatever market research agency came up with this bright spark. You deserve better.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Contrapunto (Post 5841210)

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Now all they have to do is to clearly annouce the "outright buy" prices and put this BaaS nonsense behind them. Let that just that- another option, but don't die on that battlefield.

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Would be interested to know who is the brain behind this 'innovation'. Chinese or Indian?

All negative response is good and failure of this will be sweeter so that no other manufacturer (car) will dare to do a BaaS:)

I think BaaS could workout to be a good option for some people. I initially thought its a secondary loan program but seems like the consensus is it's a lease program. Need to await exact details like various plans made available, residual value of the battery at the end of the lease, what are overage charges for kms etc. Because with any lease, understanding TCO is the most important point. Since its a lease program, It will really depend on the banks if they want to balance between their profits and value to lessee, or eek out maximum profit from the lessee.

As with all lease programs, there would be buyers who would not want to deal with banks for various reasons like avoiding additional bank charges, not finding suitable plan, having enough funds or some even trying to run the car for 100-200 kms per day, owning the car for 10+ years etc etc. MG should also offer outright purchase plan for such buyers. As such, past says that lease programs have not been very successful with Indians.

Edit: It’s funny how you can extract simple answers from MG bot while company and dealers do not give such clarity!!

MG Cloud spotted testing in India. EDIT: Named Windsor-img_1996.jpeg

Quote:

Originally Posted by volkman10 (Post 5841219)

Probably off-topic for this thread, but having spent a lifetime in the corporate world, I strongly suspect there is some "entitled maverick" one level below the CXO level. Just think back at the Comet EV launch with its "super-slow-charger-ONLY" option. That could not have come from any customer feedback either. I doubt Comet EV has recovered from that, even today.

I do hope that EV makers like MG will realize that a power-electronics unit that enables super-fast charging at 100 Kw+ is a better cost to incur than a larger battery. This will allow 10-15 min top-up for most EVs with 30-40 Kwh batteries. As a customer, I would gladly pay 30k more for that capability than 5 lakhs more for a 50 -60 KwH battery for a car that will be 90% urban vehicle. Apple style, they should present customers with the delicious dilemma of choosing between "faster charging time" or "longer range battery" for 2 trims at around the same price point :-) . But that's my $0.02.