Experience tells me that you can only trust so much of what manufacturers say when it comes to future products. Car firms will shout to the hills when a production-previewing concept lands on the scene but are less willing to talk when plans to build said concept are quietly ditched.
Sure enough, when small-player MG revealed the sleek E-Motion electric coupe in 2017 and said they'd build it if there was enough interest, the cynic in my said "yeah, right". After all, the two-door coupe market has been a shrinking one for some time now, and it's only really the aspirational German premium brands that are bothering at the more mass-market end.
Consider my words gulped down with a side of fries. Not only is Chinese-run MG set to build it, but it'll also sell it in the notoriously tough European market. We'll even see right-hand drive versions coming to the UK. And it'll be all-electric, unlike any other mainstream coupe.
While we’re still missing a lot of crucial details, most notably performance, range and price, if any of MG's recent efforts are to go by it should certainly be affordable.
The turmoil that the car industry has faced this year and will continue to face is likely to put pay to any vanity projects (if it hasn’t already), but MG is convinced there’s a market for an electric sports coupé not from a premium brand. I hope it’s right; we need more coupés and affordable electric cars, and there’s a chance that both desires could combine here.
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looks alright but no doubt it will be cheap and rubbish
I'm always a little bemused by the xenophobia that creeps up on these pages. Maybe a Brexit thing or something. But British ownership of a car company is irrelevant to 99% of people – what's more I'd hope to the flag-wavers is that a British brand makes cars that people around the world want to buy. Doing so generates export revenue and protects jobs.
Mealy-mouthed criticism of Chinese-owned MG's styling cues being ripped off seems extraordinarily naive. The chances are that the car was styled by a multi-national team, just as much as there are non-Brits in the most senior roles in Bentley, R-R and JLR. The design community is international and so to assume an MG is somehow a "Chinese rip off" is misunderstanding the people behind the vehicle who might just have designed British, German or whatever country vehicles in their last role.
My problem with MG is not their Chinese ownership but the fact that their cars are built in China. I'm aware Volvo are also owned by the Chinese, but with the exception of their poorest selling car, the S90, all of their models sold in the U.K. are not built in China.
JLR is owned by Tata, an Indian company, but the vast majority of models built by JLR for the U.K. are built in the U.K., including Land Rovers top selling model, the Discovery Sport, Range Rovers top selling model, the Evoque, and Jaguar's top selling model, the F-Pace. Any JLR models sold in the U.K. not built in the U.K. are built elsewhere in Europe.
For me, MG's Chinese ownership ain't the problem, it's the fact that their cars are built in China. I have the same issue with the BMW iX3 BTW in case you're wondering.
We are all going to have to except the Korean and now the Chinese make as good and if not better cars than our established European manufacturers.
For example the following cars built and Chinese owned
MG
Volvo
London taxi
Lotus
Whiile you are reading up on more cars made in China you can enjoy eating your Chinese pizza express or eat in Chinese owned Zizzi's for that authentic Italian food.
In ten years China have turned round Volvo, the press just don't mention they are now Chinese
Umm, I think you will find that Zizzi is NOT owned by the Chinese, it is owned by a London based management company, Towerbook Capital Partners, and those partners are Neal Moszkowski and Ramez Sousou, who are the Co-Chairmans and they are based in New York and the UK - and NEITHER are Chinese, and NEITHER is the company they also own ASK Restaurant chain and many healthcare companies around the world.
Oh yes, Volvo were already on the road to a turnaround when Geely purchased Volvo, the same as JLR were when they were purchased by TATA, the new range of cars for 2008-2011 were all set in stone before they were sold.Why does anyone have to say who owns what, you never say American Ford, or French Renault, Spanish Seat, British Rolls Royce, and so on, when you look at who actually owns the majority of teh shares in these companies you may find that the majority are owned from outside of those countries, it maes NO difference who owns the company as long as the brands are still running and performing well.As much as i am an MG fan, you can not put the company into teh same category as LEVC, Volvo or Lotus, those companies are built here... we have a better build process than China, the current MG's are better than they were 3 years ago, and in three years time they will be better than they are now, they are getting there, but NO Chinese brand as yet comes close to European quality, thats how they sell then so cheaply - and why so many foreign brands that build in China have had issues with build quality, Polestar, Land Rover, Jaguar, PSA and so on...
What a load of piffle. Where do you think Apple products are made and why are Shaghai built Teslas better than Made in America ones. You need a wake up call big time- I am in China a lot and the fact that they are a very driven people anxious to make an impression on the world is palpable. Unlike us, they are on the up whereas we are constantly dining on Ashes or making up stories about the things they make. I recently bought my daughter 3d printer from China and she was stunned by its construction and build Quality and the same is happening with their cars. They appear cheap to you because their national wage is so much lower but its obvious you are mixing up pay with quality. Utter nonsense. Europeans have been making cars for over 100 years. They have been doing it for far less years but are overall catching up quickly. Dinosaurs go extinct, which is where we are now in the industrial world and living in denial about ownership says it all.