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Chinese MG's to be Built in Oklahoma?!

MG ZT aka Rover 75 (below)


MG ZS (below)


MG ZR (below)



It's baaaack!!! The return of MG begins soon. Nanjing Automobile Group said in a press release that the latest rendition of MG will have three production sites. A plant in Ardmore, Oklahoma will assemble a redesigned TF coupe. MG's shuttered factory in Longbridge, England (click here to check out some photos of closed plant) will build the TF roadster. And a Nanjing plant in China will build three sedans (ZR, ZS and ZT). The company said it expects to begin construction of the Oklahoma plant in early 2007 and start production by the third quarter of 2008. MG expects the plant to produce 12,000 to 16,000 units a year. About 60 percent of the output would be for North America and 40 percent for Europe.

MGs will first be sold in Europe in 2007, followed by reintroduction to the United States in late 2008. Three sedans, formerly known as ZR, ZS and ZT, along with the TF Roadster and TF Coupe will be sold in European markets, while the U.S. launch will feature the TF sports cars followed by two sedan models. This is an interesting approach to breaking the USA market. Draw attention to the English heritage of the brand and not the brand owner's nationality.

Will it work? Dunno. One troubling note is that several industry insiders have called Nanjing "unorganized" and that they are "making it up as they go along." Given all that, I really liked the Rover 75 sedan (also called the MG ZT), a classy car influenced by owner's at the time BMW. I am presuming that the 75 would be part of the lineup that will make it to the USA. All that is being said right now is that the USA will get two sedan models. BMW still owns the Rover name, so Nanjing couldn't call it a Rover unless they win the rights (something that they are supposedly in negotiations with BMW about). The problem is Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) is also set to produce its own version of Rover cars for itself. How's that for complicated? Nanjing took the Longbridge tooling back to China and will use it to produce its version of the 75 while SAIC will use new tooling. You can check out this post at WCF that shows somebody testing a Rover 75 sedan.

Source: Automotive News / Autoweek