The recently released Urban Mobility Happiness Survey conducted by Nielsen on behalf of MG Motor India revealed a lot of interesting but already commonly known facts about the urban commuter in the top eight cities of the country. Of course, the study focused on households that already owned at least one car in the family.
Among the highlights was the difficulty faced by nearly 75 per cent of the urban commuters in finding parking with over half frequently changing their choice of the preferred means of transport or the time of commute based on the availability of parking. Despite this, an overwhelming majority preferred personal transport over public transport even though only one in a hundred reported using the car with more than one passenger. Over 70 per cent of the respondents highlighted that they travel alone or with just one passenger. And over 80 per cent said that the only luggage they carried on their commutes was a laptop bag. Crucially, over 80 per cent of the people surveyed felt that their cities were polluted and nearly 70 per cent mentioned concern for the environment as one of the factors affecting their car-buying decision. Also, over 50 per cent of the respondents acknowledged being impacted by rising fuel prices and nearly 90 per cent travelled less than 30km every day. A similar percentage felt that a compact small car could not only reduce their commute times but also the parking hassles.
Given this need, what is the car one should make and launch for the increasing population in the top metro cities of India? It would look identical to the MG Comet—a micro mini. First up, it is a 4-seater electric car with an over 200km range, so good enough for a week’s running for office commutes and requiring to be charged only once a week for normal usage. No concerns about rapidly rising fuel prices or adding to air pollution. It can be charged by plugging it into any 15amp socket at home or the office and requires about six hours to get fully charged—so either overnight at home or during an eight-hour work day at the office. It has only two doors and a hatch at the back but then in most cases, the rear seat is seldom used and there is enough boot space for a laptop bag if all four seats are occupied. Ingress and egress are easy as the front passenger seat flips over at the tug of a lever and its footprint is tiny; it can squeeze through traffic or into a small parking spot.
This would mean that the MG Comet would fit the bill for 90 per cent of these city commuters—as did the Tata Nano at one point of time. The major difference is that, unlike the Nano, the Comet looks and feels premium, both on the inside and the outside. The electric powertrain will keep running costs to a fraction of that of a petrol car.
So the ideal car for the big Indian city commuter? Well, the problem with the Indian buyer is that they have traditionally been buying cars for the extremes of their usage patterns rather than for the normal usage pattern. The range, the boot, the size, and the space are all fine for 90 per cent of the usage but people want a car to serve for the remaining 10 per cent of their usage as well. Therein lies the challenge.
It is a brave decision by the company to launch such a car when the smallest cars in the country are not even among the top 10 bestsellers, two-door cars have not worked in the country and small is usually associated with cheap. But attitudes may be changing and it will be interesting to see if MG Motor India can sell the 3,000 Comets that it plans to make each month and open the floodgates for the range of similarly cute and funky—and very sensible—small cars that we really should be driving.
