Rover Made Over
Well, they didn’t do as much as one would expect to see, which is then again, expected, of course. It still bears the same resemblance to the original from MG, which Nanjing Auto is now marketing as the “Modern Gentleman”… which seems original enough.
Nanjing Auto managed to outbid China’s biggest car manufacturer, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC), in 2005 and acquired MG Rover’s assets and models for £53m (approx. SGD$ 158m).
After the acquisition, the company readied a new factory, complete with robots and assembly lines which they had bought from Rover, in a matter of half a year.
With plans to produce about 200,000 cars annually, it hopes to sell the cars all around the world, even though a big part of them will end up back in China – in the hands of the nouveau rich.
The “new” models, MG7 saloon and the MG-TF convertible were launched in Nanjing, accompanied by music from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, against a backdrop of photos of Buckingham Palace and the Tower Bridge.
“We are keeping the original British flavour,” said Mr Zhang Xin, General Manager of Nanjing Auto. “But in the future, the major market for MG will be China.”
While the MG plant is currently capable of producing 200,000 cars, 250,000 engines and 100,000 gearboxes every year, the Chinese car market is expected to grow by a whopping 10 million new cars per year.
Meanwhile, more plans are in store to build some of the cars for the European market in Britain’s Longbridge factory, and also in Ardmore, Southern Oklahoma, for the US market.
Expect to pay between 180,000 yuan and 400,000 yuan (between SGD$35,300 - $78,400) for these new models.
Credits: Kr0n
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