SAIC top man Mr. Chen Zhi Xin, announced yesterday that Roewe and MG will unite together for research, production, scope, purchasing and share investment resources to build their respective brands.
SAIC plans to merge its production bases into one east coat production base, the three factories, Pukou (in Nanjing), Lin Gang, Yi Zheng and An Ting (Shanghai) will come together to produce cars in the SAIC portfolio.
According to SAICs plans, SAIC will no longer be based on brand, but rather platforms. The Nanjing factory will be focussed on production an A-class small car, and small engines. Lin Gang will be focused on producing A+B segment cars, as well as producing the current Roewe 750, Lin Gang will also produce the Ssangyong range of SUVs in China.
The Lin Gang factory will produce 6 different types of car, the Roewe 550, and the next generation 750 and engines. The next generation 750 is expected to enter the market in either 2009, or 2010, further information on the next generation Roewe 750 was not forthcoming. The next generation MG7 is also in the development stage, and could also be produced in the Lin Gang factory.
MG plans to have an A-segment car, which will be available in hatch and sedan format. A small MPV will also be made, and work on a compact car is also in progress, these cars may be named the MG5 and MG6. The MG6 will be the next car to go on the market after the launch of the MG7 Automatic model, and will go on the market in 2009. MG spokesman, Mr. Jian Lu Qiang revealed that the MG6 wont be based on the Roewe 550 platform.
interesting the fact that there are no comments to this posting. News (or non news) is boring. WE had years of this before MG Rover went down, with Photoshopped images appearing in Autoexpress. None of these came to anything and I dare say, not much will be coming from SAIC MG for quite a while.
Ash, here’s a tip, unless there’s some REAL news to report, don’t report the propaganda coming from Nanjing.