General Motors’ Vauxhall dealer development personnel are helping with the development of a UK MG network but MGs won’t be sold alongside Vauxhalls in the same showroom.
GM’s key partner in China, Shanghai Automotive, owns MG after a merger with Nanjing Automobile in 2007.
Go deeper with GlobalData
“We have agreed in an MOU that we would discuss the potential for MG to be distributed in the UK,” Kevin Wale, president and managing director for GM’s China operations, said earlier at the Reuters China Investment Summit. “And that’s what we are doing at the moment.”
GM UK and Ireland said in a statement: “SAIC and GM have a significant joint venture in China. As a part of the General Motors Corporation – the UK is GM’s fourth largest market – Vauxhall is pleased to assist its global organisation.
“Vauxhall Motors’ retail network development department is assisting SAIC/MG Motor (through an MOU) with network development to enable MG Motor to develop its retail network in the UK. Opportunities being discussed do not include selling MG Motor products alongside Vauxhall in the same showroom.”
Wale also told the news agency no discussions have been held on sharing GM’s dealer network in North America.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataThe earlier Reuters report had noted that the UK dealer network deal, if it was completed, would mark another milestone in the 13-year SAIC-GM relationship and would make SAIC the only Chinese automaker to secure access to a partner’s overseas dealer network.
SAIC became the owner of MG Rover’s 10,000-unit Longbridge plant in Birmingham, central England, after the merger with Nanjing.
The Chinese automaker plans to start assembling the new MG6 hatchback model in the UK by the end of this year to sell across the European Union, chairman Hu Maoyuan told Reuters in January.
Sales and marketing director Guy Jones said in October the MG6, on sale later this year, would be sold through the 40 dealers currently handling the MG roadster since sales of the Birmingham assembled model began in 2007/8 while another 20 or so “are looking to come on board in the next few months”.
MG will also launch a sports sedan MG6 variant during 2011 and “new product” (widely expected to be a small car based on the Zero concept) “after that”. The dealer network would be expanded to cope with expected volume, he added.
Access to GM’s network would be a big help for SAIC, which has little exposure to the European market so far, industry observers told Reuters.
MG’s UK spokesman was unavailable for comment.
