MG-owner SAIC planning European car factory

18 years after MG Rover collapsed and was bought by SAIC (Shanghai Industry Automotive Corporation) and 7 years after the carmaker moved MG production to China in 2016, SAIC is planning to build a new car factory in Europe. The location has not yet been finalised and details of which brands will be made there are scant, but as the European car parc transitions to electric vehicles, it appears that the production history of the MG Rover is going full circle.

In 2016, MG said its UK Longridge, Birmingham assembly plant was no longer needed because cars would arrive “fully built (and) ready for distribution” from China.

However, with SAIC reporting a 40 per cent increase in export in the first quarter of 2023, demand for the company’s vehicles and therefore for a European factory has clearly increased. That, in turn, is good news for the European OE tyre market that has been hit with repeated production cuts due to the pandemic and because of chip shortages in recent years.

However, it is not yet clear which cars will be made wherever the new SAIC Europe car factory finally lands. “We have many brands including MG, IM and Maxus. We are still deciding which will be built at the factory,” an SAIC spokesperson told the BBC.

SAIC, which describes itself as “China’s largest carmaker”, recently accelerated the execution of its international expansion plans with the news that it has started construction of the SAIC Motor-CP New Energy Industrial Park in Thailand.

The park, which is located in Chonburi province and covers a 120,000 square metre area, is expected to focus on the localized production of key auto parts for the company’s new energy vehicles (NEVs). The project’s first phase is expected to be completed this year, while the entire park will be completed in 2025.