Who Is MG Motor?

The United Kingdom has a very rich and varied automotive heritage. The UK has been renowned as the birthplace of leading premium/luxury, motorsport brands which have been at the very forefront of the global automobile industry right from its early days. On the one hand car makers such as Rolls Royce, Bentley are at the pinnacle of the automobile luxury; while on the other car brands such as Lotus, McLaren who have made a respectable name for themselves on the global motorsport arena. The UK has also given us the mighty all terrain conquering Land Rover which has been a pioneer in the SUV, 4X4 category of vehicles. India is one of the largest car markets in the world, quite a few of UK’s car giants have already made their way to India. MG Motor which hails from the UK is all set to enter the Indian market later this year. MG Motor though a very prominent and popular brand from the UK is not quite well known in India, read on to find out who MG Motors are!

  In 1924, the MG Car Company started off like a sports car manufacturer. Under the care of Cecil Kimber, the general manager of the company, MG Cars produced saloons, coupes and 2 seat open cars. William Morris the owner of the company transferred ownership to his holding company Morris Motors Limited. In 1933, MG was the first non-Italian car company to win the prestigious Mile Miglia (1000 Mile) with their K3 Magnette, hence announcing themselves on the world motorsport stage. After the end of the second world war, the British government restructured the British motor industry. This led to the creation of the British Motor Corporation (BMC) – a UK car manufacturer which was a merger of Austin & Morris Motors. Britain has been home to some of the most beautiful cars ever produced, cars the likes of the Jaguar E-Type are products of beautiful UK car design. In 1955, MG introduced the MGA; this car is arguably the most beautiful one to come out of the MG stable. Its great popularity saw over 100,000 units sold. It was in the year 1957, that MG proved its commitment to speed, engineering on the world stage by breaking the land speed record (i.e. highest recorded speed achieved by a human in a vehicle on land) in an MG EX181. The car was driven by the legendary Sir Stirling Moss and the speed achieved was 245.64 mph (or 395.31 kmph). Two years later in 1957, MG beat its own record this time achieving a speed of 254.91 mph (or 410.23 kmph). In 1962, the all-time best-selling MG – MG MGB was introduced. The MGB was the most modern car to be produced by MG at the time featuring firsts such as a monocoque suspension. In 1968 British Leyland was formed following the merger of Leyland Motors and BMC, now under a unified company, MG Motor worked alongside Jaguar, Rover and Triumph. In 2001, BMW the then owners of MG (the Rover Group was the successor to British Leyland) sold the Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium. The newly formed company MG Rover Group set out to give the car line up a new lease of life by introducing the MG ZR, ZS, ZT all these cars were based in hatchback and saloon platforms of Rover. These cars continued to perform decently and gave good hope for the revival of the MG brand. On 22 July 2005, Chinese automobile giant Nanjing Automobile Group purchased the rights of the MG brand along with its assets in the UK for £53 million. After the merger of the Nanjing Automobile Group and Shanghai Automobile Industry Corporation (SAIC) the MG division was renamed MG Motor, the brand as we know it today. Under Chinese stewardship, MG launched the popular MG 6 the first all-new MG product in over 16 years. SAIC has breathed new life into the MG brand hence bringing them back of the global car market. With the huge resources of SAIC current MG cars – MG 6, GT, 3, ZS, HS are competing globally with bigger brands and are on par with respect to cutting-edge tech, quality, performance etc. MG Motor has a lot of focus on EVs and hybrid cars, with a lot of their car range being sold globally as hybrid/EVs.

   This year MG Motor is all set to enter the lucrative Indian market. With the launch of their first car for India the MG Hector SUV in mid-2019, MG Motor would be raring to grab a slice of the Indian market. MG with the Hector SUV will be competing with cars the likes of the mighty Jeep Compass, Tata Harrier – these cars are very well packaged and will give stiff competition to the MG Hector. With an advantage of economies of scale, heavy localized production, technology, the quality on par with global standards MG Motor is an exciting proposition for India. Add the arrival of Kia to the Indian market and you have Indian customers spoilt for choice! How MG performs in the market is something we will have to wait and watch out for…but exciting times ahead for the Indian automobile industry for sure!