Photo: MG
MG, the British brand owned by SAIC Motor, will end production in its homeland for China.
The British automaker will shift all operations from Longbridge to China, and its representatives have explained that the move will bring lower costs for the final product.
MG was only building the MG3 in the factory in central England, so the shift is not a dramatic move concerning volume. Instead, it comes as a disappointment to some, including Andy Palmer, the CEO of Aston Martin.
Palmer started his automotive career at Rover, back in 1991, and he used to work at the Longbridge facility. Palmer is presently the CEO of Aston Martin, one of the few independent automakers in the world, in the sense that it is not owned by a larger corporation that also sells other brands of cars.
Mr. Palmer used to develop manual transmissions for MG, and he says that learned “so much of his trade” at the Longbridge site.
According to Automotive News, MG estimates that 25 jobs will be lost in the United Kingdom because of the move. As we noted above, this is not a massive cut from a volume perspective, but will stir critics regarding the decision.
Other British brands owned by foreign corporations had not made such dramatic moves when it came to shifting production operations, even though they might have saved money in the process. Instead, some models have been built by different contract automakers to support higher demand.
Jaguar Land Rover, for instance, manufactures many cars and SUVs in the United Kingdom, and BMW has invested heavily in the MINI factory in Oxford. German-owned Bentley and Rolls-Royce also treasure their British legacy and continue to build their cars in the UK.
The Longbridge facility had restarted production five years ago with the MG6, when the Chinese owners of MG wanted to assure clients that the brand still had a British character. SAIC Motor owns MG since 2007, when it acquired its former owners, Nanjing Automobile. The latter bought MG after the company collapsed in 2005.
The United Kingdom is MG’s single European market, and it only sold 3,152 cars in the country. In 2016, MG expects to sell about 5,000 units. The company denied rumors that the shift is related to the Brexit vote, which made some companies reconsider their options regarding British facilities. Either way, MG only performed final assembly of the MG3 in the UK, as the engines and bodies came in kits from China.
MG was only building the MG3 in the factory in central England, so the shift is not a dramatic move concerning volume. Instead, it comes as a disappointment to some, including Andy Palmer, the CEO of Aston Martin.
Palmer started his automotive career at Rover, back in 1991, and he used to work at the Longbridge facility. Palmer is presently the CEO of Aston Martin, one of the few independent automakers in the world, in the sense that it is not owned by a larger corporation that also sells other brands of cars.
Mr. Palmer used to develop manual transmissions for MG, and he says that learned “so much of his trade” at the Longbridge site.
According to Automotive News, MG estimates that 25 jobs will be lost in the United Kingdom because of the move. As we noted above, this is not a massive cut from a volume perspective, but will stir critics regarding the decision.
Other British brands owned by foreign corporations had not made such dramatic moves when it came to shifting production operations, even though they might have saved money in the process. Instead, some models have been built by different contract automakers to support higher demand.
Jaguar Land Rover, for instance, manufactures many cars and SUVs in the United Kingdom, and BMW has invested heavily in the MINI factory in Oxford. German-owned Bentley and Rolls-Royce also treasure their British legacy and continue to build their cars in the UK.
The Longbridge facility had restarted production five years ago with the MG6, when the Chinese owners of MG wanted to assure clients that the brand still had a British character. SAIC Motor owns MG since 2007, when it acquired its former owners, Nanjing Automobile. The latter bought MG after the company collapsed in 2005.
The United Kingdom is MG’s single European market, and it only sold 3,152 cars in the country. In 2016, MG expects to sell about 5,000 units. The company denied rumors that the shift is related to the Brexit vote, which made some companies reconsider their options regarding British facilities. Either way, MG only performed final assembly of the MG3 in the UK, as the engines and bodies came in kits from China.
Deeply disappointed to see the closure of the Longbridge site where I learned so much of my trade. https://t.co/PQXwj9YwFH
— Andy Palmer (@AndyatAston) September 23, 2016
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