Longbridge starts production
On 1 August, almost three and a half years after the collapse of MG Rover, car production re-started at Longbridge under the control of China’s Nanjing Automotive Corporation
The first model to emerge from the factory is a lightly revised MG TF, billed as a limited edition of just 500 cars, hence the LE500 badging. Series production of a cheaper but less highly specced TF will follow.
Re-starting Longbridge hasn’t been straightforward. Nanjing bought the facility in July 2005, three months after it closed, and shipped much of its contents to a brand new factory in China which now builds the Rover 75 and Streetwise for the local market. Whilst this ‘lift and shift’ operation was underway, Nanjing made vague assurances that it would retain ‘some car production’ in Britain but it wasn’t until May 2007 that, with much fanfare, it held an official re-opening ceremony at Longbridge. Behind the scenes, however, things were more complicated as Nanjing was being bought out by SAIC, the Chinese company that had attempted to buy Longbridge when MG Rover was still a going concern. The SAIC takeover was officially announced in late 2007 but there was still no sign of car production at Longbridge.
Nanjing continued to insist that its UK plans were progressing, going so far as to secretly release ‘spy footage’ of TFs on test at Millbrook, until finally, at the start of this month, they proudly announced that the first cars were coming off the line.
The plant that builds them is a far cry from the Longbridge of old, once the largest car factory in Europe and capable of turning out 345,000 vehicles a year. Pending redevelopment much of it is now wasteland as the extremities of the vast site have been demolished. However, the remaining core can still make over 40,000 cars a year, although the relaunched TF, with its complete bodyshell and engine coming from China, won’t use anything like that capacity.
This, however, is just the start of bigger plans. MG’s Corporate Communications boss, Eleanor de la Haye, makes no secret of the fact that the re-launched TF will be followed by a revised model and that within 18 months Nanjing will announce a brand new sports car and an MG version of SAIC’s Roewe 550 saloon, recently announced in China. In principle, both cars could be assembled in Britain. Gary Hagen, MG’s Sales & Marketing Director, is more guarded about ‘when and where’ these cars might actually be made but insists that Longbridge is important to the Chinese, not least as an R&D centre which will see a massive influx of engineers over the coming months, many transferring from SAIC’s European development centre in Leamington Spa.
Whilst MG’s spokespeople are deliberately vague about future plans, evo has learned from other sources that next year’s TF is a thorough revamp of the current car, featuring new front and rear ends, a brand new interior and a 150bhp version of the N-series engine. Furthermore, our insiders claim work has already started on adapting the remains of the old Rover 75 line for production of an MG saloon, with potential to add an MG version of a new supermini currently under development at SAIC.
Hagen is more cautious, insisting that, whilst the Chinese value their UK outpost, it’s important to remember ‘things change’. Given the turbulent times through which the old factory has risen and fallen, that could almost be Longbridge’s motto.
