MG Plans Model Offensive in Europe

Once a rather well-known brand on the Old Continent, MG has slipped into oblivion for a few years now, with the models manufactured by the Chinese-owned company selling more in Asia than in what once was one of its best markets.

This year, MG made a sort of a comeback, launching the MG6 model in the UK, and promises to make the model just the tip of the iceberg. An avalanche of models, backed by a huge Chinese investment, will flood the European market, but some other as well.

According to Autonews, citing sources close to the Chinese who own MG, SAIC, the target is to have sales that reach 700,000 units a year by 2015. To that end, the Chinese will invest some $3.6 billion in the production facilities in owns in Europe.

The lineup of models will be greatly diversified, with the addition of no less than six models planned for launch in the next five years. The first, the MG3 hatchback, will be introduced in the UK next year.

It will be followed the same year by the launch of an electric version of the Roewe E1 concept (model meant only for China), the MG5 in 2013 and a yet-unnamed crossover in 2014. Also in 2014, MG will launch a replacement for the MG7.

For now, however, the car maker will have to make it on the increasingly competitive market with only the MG6, the first new car assembled under the MG badge in the UK in 16 years. As the Chinese seem to hope, it will not be the last.