MG is a brand of SAIC Motor.
MG came to SAIC on 26 December 2007, when SAIC and the Yuejin Motor Group signed their full cooperation agreement in Beijing and Nanjing Automobile, which had bought the MG assets in 2005, became a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIC Motor.
Where it sits
Two levels. A figure marks a company boundary crossed; a word means the figure was never published.
MG
102 years, three owners
The year is coloured by whoever held it at the time.
- 1924 MG began in 1924, when Cecil Kimber built sportier bodies on Morris cars at Morris Garages in Oxford and gave them the octagon badge. MG's own European brand history opens "Since 1924, MG has been making cars people love to drive", and SAIC's own MG brand page dates it the same way: "1924年，第一辆MG汽车诞生" — "in 1924 the first MG car was born". SAIC marked the centenary in 2024 with a return to the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
- 2005 MG Rover Group collapsed into administration in April 2005, and on 22 July 2005 its administrators at PricewaterhouseCoopers sold the assets of MG Rover and of its engine subsidiary Powertrain Ltd to Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation, which took the MG trademark and the vehicle technology with them. SAIC's own MG brand history records the step as "2005年，南汽以5300万英镑收购MG" — "in 2005 Nanjing Auto acquired MG for 53 million pounds". Neither the seller, MG Rover Group, nor the buyer, Nanjing Automobile, is collected in this batch, so both counterparties are left unlinked.
- 2007 MG came to SAIC on 26 December 2007, when SAIC and the Yuejin Motor Group signed their full cooperation agreement in Beijing and Nanjing Automobile, which had bought the MG assets in 2005, became a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIC Motor. SAIC's own disclosure on that subsidiary reads "2007年12月26日，上汽·跃进全面合作签约仪式在北京人民大会堂举行，南汽成为上海汽车集团股份有限公司全资子公司" — "on 26 December 2007 the SAIC-Yuejin full cooperation signing ceremony was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, and Nanjing Auto became a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIC Motor Corporation Limited". SAIC's own account of the period puts it in brand terms: "2007.12, 上南合作，上汽获得MG品牌、浦口基地" — "December 2007, the SAIC-Nanjing cooperation; SAIC obtained the MG brand and the Pukou base". The seller, Nanjing Automobile, is not collected in this batch.
SAIC Motor
6 marques
No car is sold as an SAIC: the names it owns outright include MG, which stayed British in everything but ownership, while the joint ventures on its own subsidiary list build Volkswagens and Buicks for China. Shanghai's city government controls it through an unlisted parent company rather than holding the shares itself.