Chinese-owned British firm MG Motor aims to emulate Kia’s quick rise in Europe by also focusing on design. Speaking to Automotive News Europe, MG vice director of design Martin Ulharik said: “In terms of product and competitiveness I’d say we’re not very far away (from Kia) already. In five years we’ll be well on our way,” adding that MG has the same design culture as Kia.
He attributes the Korean carmaker’s success on the Continent to its design and R&D centres in Germany, the opening of various eastern European plants and the appointment of styling chief Peter Schreyer in 2004.
However, IHS Automotive Senior Analyst Ian Fletcher told the publication that he believes it will be difficult for MG to match Kia’s success unless owner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) is willing to invest in all parts of the business.
“Kia (and Hyundai) have invested a great deal in marketing, sales networks and creating this positive brand image, which I can’t see SAIC being prepared for,” said Fletcher. “I really don’t see them being able to get anywhere near where Kia is now by the end of the decade.”
The British brand’s first European ports of entry outside the UK have been chosen to be the Benelux countries and Scandinavia, according to MG sales and marketing head Guy Jones. This is due to their small size, ease of control and low costs of entry. Cars will be sold via importers who Jones says have had success in the past by adding upstart Asian brands.
Currently MG has sold less than 1,000 cars in the UK, but an in-house developed 1.85 litre diesel has been added to the MG 6‘s engine line-up, which should help sales. Known future models include the MG 3 subcompact due next year, MG 5 compact for 2014 and a Nissan Qashqai-rivalling compact crossover for 2015 or 2016.
According to SAIC global R&D headquarters MD David Lindley, success in Europe is considered a strong selling point for the brand in China, where MG sells around 90,000 cars a year.
“If you just sell MG as a domestic brand then it’s worth less in the Chinese market than if you also sell a car that’s competitive in Europe,” he said. “What it does mean there’s going to be quite a lot of patience in growing the European business.”
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It’s great that they decided to follow Kia in a design focused concept…… But please be moderate with the design like Kia and not hyundai.
I wonder if they rememberd about about quality bcuz Kia success is also due to their drestic improvement in their product quality .something that the Chinese has quite a bad rep with.
I also hope they’re working on build quality. The signs are good: SAIC seems to be saving their best efforts for MG and reviewers have been positive of the quality of their products of late.
Kia or Hyundai, same DNA – NO RV
cngratz
When I think of MG all I think of is the BGT. Could they be an everyman’s Lotus or just another Seat/Kia/Skoda?
Even MG is tyring to emulate the koreans. Dont want to move backwards like TOYota – quality sucks, every year got recall.Somemore priced like conti, quality like proton.
Wow major anti T spotted.
Quality sux? Dude I can understand ppl banging it for being under spec and fugly. But Toyota are still known for their quality.
Every year recalled? name me one major brand that lately dose’t recall their cars. Even contis and Korean get recalled in the states.
Priced like conti? You are only comparing only a small segment of entry level contis. But I can’t argue much about this.
Not that I defend T , but be reasonable with your comment . UMW Toyota, yes. Toyota as a whole, no
Enough of this condemnation of Toyota la. Please stick to the topic, it’s about a tiny car company trying to emulate how another formerly small company in car market build their success. Of course they it does not make sense to get clue on how to grow from the biggest car company in the world like Toyota.
why so butt hurt? just stating facts here. If Toyota was the perfect company at the top everyone should try to emulate them. why emulate something in middle place or near the bottom?
Its not the perfect company, but is not a bad company either.
Just like your comment isn’t perfect, far from it. Stating the facts? What makes you think that T make bad quality car,. They may produce dull looking and underspec cars, but Toyota is no.1 at CarMD 2012 quality survey and No. in JD.Power AND Consumer reports reliability survey, so they are doing well in the states. And what makes you think T is only car being recalled, most major manufacturer is recalling their cars lately, even Koreans and Contis. I know people bash T, but they do stae the facts ,your comment sounds like a drunk man that is just angry with the world.
I don’t defend T, but please be reasonable with your comment. UMW Toyota, yes. Toyota as a whole, no.
Yes, I do not talk without facts. Previously I did not think toyota make bad quality cars but i see it with my own eyes. I happen to know a few ppl that suffered engine failure in their camry. 3 to be precise out of 5 camry owners that i know off. Unbelievable right? Sadly its true. Lets not even talk about the number of auto gearbox failures in the 1st gen harrier…almost as famous as perdana’s gearbox. You are correct when you say every company has got its own fair share of problems and has recalls. But it should not happen for a company that boast about its so called reliability. Even seen a toyota ad showing that their cars NEVER ever break down. but it does happen pretty frequently actually. And when it happens these poor owners quietly pay a bomb to fix the problem and quickly sell off their cars. Ashamed bcos they were once so proud and bragging about their so called “bullet-proof” cars.
Face it, toyota’s reputation of quality is no longer there like during the 90’s. Those surveys are not accurate enough mostly based cars less than 6 months old. And now you see toyota making recalls for 2003 models probably already in the scrap yard? Are you seriously telling me they took almost 10 yrs to realize the problems. Or were they sweeping the problems under the carpet all these years. Not reporting the problems thus getting high scores for IQS surveys?
I am not even going to waste my time talking about a cut throat greedy company like UMW.
And remember i never said my comments are perfect…just stating facts that i know off.
Peace
Now you talk with more facts, you should actually write this you this to make it sound less like a drunk man fisting the wind.
Anyways, your survey is too narrow to determine Toyota quality as sxxx. There are thousands of Camry on the road, judging just 3 Camry and the 1st gen harrier(which I admit is fairly poorly built) from this dose’t justify Toyota as a whole to be sxxx, furthermore comparing with just Malaysian specs car. To me determining a company is terrible is to see one out of three products is badly rated. Ie : 90s hyundai and 00s Chrysler .
How do you confirm that those survey isn’t legit. What if I say hyundai is placed 2cd-3rd in those survey(true story), are you going to deny it now. Also some manufecturer also recalls their old cars, it’s due to age that the problems finally shows itself .
Toyota will never return to their once bullet proof car, in fact I don’t think any cars will. New cars today have more tech and features than cars 10 yrs ago to keep us and the environment safe and give us the most luxury, all of them are bound to spoil sooner and later. The most reliable cars are those that are bare, ie: willy Jeep(hand crank wiper that will never spoil), land cruiser FJ and Yes, Datsun 120Y.
I hope from the comment that you finally realise that UMW Toyota is mostly at fault for giving us these craps and not Toyota as a whole. But I do agree that Toyota makes boring cars, I count Toyota driving by whenever I can’t sleep
Did I say Toyota is a perfect company? Name me ONE company in any industry that’s perfect? An average man trying to expand his small enterprise into a bigger company, do you think he will look at Apple, Microsoft or Google right away? I m not interested in commenting on Toyota vs others. I don’t even like a Toyota for goodness sake.
People than condem T&H are hoping that by doing so, the resale value of their rotten cabbage will increase
Its like continuously whacking a road kill
VW Wannabe?
nice design… wonder whether MG will make a return back to malaysia…
not sure about the cars, looks like they lost the British-ness even with the UK flag
MG executives are just planning for failure.
Copying the kimchis? Might be less painful if they just swallow dog poo
you can copy Kia and focus on designs…but please don’t have crappy drivetrains like them…
a proper good design car has to be coupled with good inners as well..
They’ve come a long way haven’t they?
Roewe (in Chinese: ??; in Pinyin: Róngw?i) is a luxury automotive marque owned by the Chinese automaker SAIC Motor. Roewe vehicles are primarily based on technology acquired from the defunct British carmarker MG Rover. SAIC was unable to purchase the rights to the Rover brand name and created the Roewe marque as a replacement.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roewe
One day Proton, one day…