So keen has MG been to keep driving up its already impressive market share that its solution to the shipping shortage is to import its cars from China via container as well as by ferry. “It’s horrendously expensive, but momentum is everything,” MG commercial director Guy Pigounakis told Autocar.
MG, owned by China’s SAIC, has been tearing up the sales chart this year. By the end of October, it was in 12th place ahead of Mini, Citroën, Dacia, Fiat, Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mazda, Renault, Seat, Skoda, Tesla and Volvo, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
The brand, still bearing the badge that first appeared in 1923, now has a 3.2% share of the UK market thanks to a combination of decent pricing and having the right models and availability in a year when simply getting hold of a car – any car – is a triumph.
MG aims to finish the year with 50,000 sales and is targeting 65,000 in 2023. By 2024, the brand wants to have come close to its medium-range goal of 75,000-80,000. “We can’t be expected to keep growing by 65-70% because in three years’ time we’d be the only car maker selling cars,” said Pigounakis, an industry hand whose CV includes commercial director of that ghost of MG’s past: MG Rover.
The UK and the wider European market is a key focus for owner SAIC as its long-term export goal for MG starts finally bearing fruit after an agonisingly slow start in this country back in 2011. The UK becoming a “50,000 vehicles" market for MG along with the likes of Australia and Mexico is part of the grand plan to be "the champion of overseas sales” within the Chinese automotive industry, SAIC wrote in its 2021 annual report.
Indeed, the success of its strategy in Europe could be coming at the expense of China. MG’s sales there dipped by 32% to the end of September, to 84,068, which was barely 10,000 above its European figure over the same period. Meanwhile, sales for its more staid and locally targeted sibling brand Roewe, a play on Rover, were down 35% to 192,309, according to sales research company bestsellingcarsblog.com.
Add your comment