MG Back With A Bang

Morris Garages: Iconic Chinese-Owned British Badge Returns To SA

- Mark Jones

Iconic, Chinese-owned British brand, MG (Morris Garages), is all set to have another go at South Africa, in a move that should be more successful than it was when they came back in 2011 and left again in 2016 as part of an independent retailer importer set-up.

Why? Because South Africa has developed an appetite for budget-friendly Chinese cars since 2016, and the local business model will now be fully backed by Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC Motor), who have been the Chinese owners of the brand since 2007.

MG vehicles are designed and developed by SAIC, with manufacturing mainly taking place in China, and despite ending production in the UK in 2016, the company is said to still be heavily invested in the UK from an R&D perspective, where they have held the title for the fastest-growing automotive brand for the past two years.

The company has become the largest single-brand car exporter from China since 2019, selling over 840,000 vehicles globally in 2023, with 88% of these sales coming from markets outside of China.