MG5, Roewe 350 to be built in Nanjing in '09

Shanghai, November 26 (Gasgoo.com) The second phase of the MG facility, located in Pukou, Nanjing, has started construction after Chinese auto giant SAIC invested 2.566 billion yuan ($376.24 million), Beijing Youth said today.

Construction of the facility, which is to develop an all-new A-class car platform and the matched small engines, will be completed in 2009, according to Gao Yunhang, assistant general manager of MG sales company. When its construction is completed, the project will get an annual capacity of 200,000 vehicles and 250,000 engines, said Gao.

The small engines are all turbocharged engines ranging from 1.3L to 1.5L, Gao said.

The A-class car platform will build both MG5 and Roewe 350 models and will also develop MPV, hatchback and sedan models later, a source said. The MG6 is actually the hatchback model of Roewe 550, not just a common hatchback, the source disclosed.

MG, which went on sale in last August, couldn’t enlarge its market share by an MT edition as 90% middle- and high-class car market is occupied by AT models.

Data show that MG posted a good sales growth after the MG7 is mated with an AT/MT co-developed with Japanese manufacturer of automatic transmissions, AISIN Co. Nanjing Auto’s MG sales in October increased by 22% year on year. The MG3-series MT editions posted significantly better sales than the AT editions, taking 60% of the total sales.