Gurugram, 6th February, 2019: Barely a few months before the launch of their respective vehicles in India for the first time, automobile giants Kia Motors India and MG Motors India are engaged in a bitter corporate rivalry with each other with respect to the locations of their showrooms.
Earlier in January Kia Motors India through its proposed dealers in Gurugram identified and finalised a showroom location in a prominent mall on M. G. Road in Gurugram, entered into agreements, but MG Motors India swept in, offered higher rentals and snatched away the showroom location from Kia. According to documents filed in Court, MG Motors caused the landlord to breach his agreements with Kia Motors’ dealers and lured the landlord with higher rentals much above the market values.
MG Motors India is reportedly backed by Chinese government sponsored financial institutions and their models are primarily based on existing Chinese automobiles and branded as “MG” for the Indian market.
Kia Motors on the other hand is an associate company of Hyundai Motors and are based out South Korea. Hyundai Motors has had a presence in India for more than twenty years and it is this goodwill and dealer network which Kia Motors is seeking to take advantage of while launching its automobiles in India.
MG Motors India is represented through Mr. Peeush Sharma Advocate and Kia Motors India is represented through Ashwini Kumar Advocate, both of whom could not be reached for comments.
The next date of hearing in the matter is 11.02.2019.