Update: MG Hector Bursts Into Flames In Delhi; MG Motor Investigates The Root Cause

MG Hector has enjoyed prime sales in India for several months post its launch. Topping the sales chart means an increased number of these vehicles on the Indian roads. With heightened numbers come rising reports of issues with the vehicles. Two of them to date, have been grave ones.

A recent incident, for instance, took place at the LG House road in Delhi when an MG Hector burst into flames in the middle of the road. What is more shocking about the incident is that it is the second of its kind, with the first MG Hector catching fire in Bandra, Mumbai back in December last year.

In both the cases, the fire started from the hood of the car, eventually engulfing the entire vehicle in flames. The difference in the cases lies in the makes of the vehicles. While the one in Mumbai was a diesel variant, Delhi report mentions a petrol DCT model catching fire. You can check out the video of the car catching fire in Delhi in the video below:"

This difference hints that the fires are not based on the fuel type or have anything to do with the engine. Instead, it can be assumed from the facts that the fires were caused by an electrical malfunction in the car. None of the two owners reported any accessory being installed in the vehicles, which is also highly unlikely as the cars were new and given their feature-loaded nature, not many would opt for any after-market installations.

MG Motor India has now investigated the incident and has come up with a conclusion on how the fire was triggered. Here is what the firm says:

"We immediately started two sets of investigations. One team comprised of our internal team of expert engineers especially trained on such issues at MG Motor. At the same time, we contacted an independent external agency under Government to investigate the details and determine the root cause.

Both the investigations concluded that the electrical connections as well as oil and fuel line of this car were completely intact. It further reveals the presence of foreign material and its debris in complete charred condition in engine bay near high temperature zone - exhaust manifold and ABS module line. The debris of the material could be suggestive of the presence of foreign material such as cleaning cloth or something similar which could have been the cause of fire under contact with high temperature parts of the exhaust system."

So the root cause was found out to be an external material which can be a cleaning cloth as per the two investigations. If or not other MG Hector owners should be wary of any such thing has not been mentioned by the company so going by this statement, we can expect the incident to be one of its kind that will not repeat itself.