MG Midget to return, made in China

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The MG Midget is about to return. SAIC-MG is working on a new mid-engined roadster. The new Midget has been designed by MG’s China Design Center in Shanghai. The Midget is set to compete with the successful Audi TT. Power will come from new 1.4 turbo and 2.0 turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engines that are jointly developed with GM.

The project is said to be similar in spirit to the famously-not-secret ‘MG Project X120‘ that was brutally cancelled in 2005.

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The MG Midget will be launched on the China car market in late 2015, but expect a first concept to debut next April on the Shanghai Auto Show. The Midget will be manufactured in Shanghai. There are no plans for production in England. The new roadster will spearhead MG’s ambitious export plans for Europe, functioning as a halo car for the rest of the line-up. Arrival in Europe is scheduled for early 2016.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Interesting story, but if you check the history books (MG & MG TF by David Knowles) you can learn all about the real Project X120 and even see the same images that you have shown, which date from 2003/4 in the dying days of MG Rover. If there is a new project surely it will be just that – new. Good news if true, although doing all the work in China seems a little strange if they want to build on that “British design” credibility they prize so highly.

  2. I agree with MG WRITER. Since the market for roadsters in China is miniscule, it would only seem natural for the project to be headed in Birmingham. Production in the UK would also seem to make good business sense. It remains to be seen if this report has credibility, since SAIC knows that this model would be primarily for export markets, and their current priority is to strengthen the MG/Roewe brands in the Chinese market. One can only hope!

    • Disagreed. The market for roadsters in China today is not miniscule at all, as the success of the Audi TT (cabrio), Porsche Boxster, Mini Cabrio/Roadster, clearly proves. The market for roadsters is inf act growing in China as more young people have enough cash to buy a speedy and flashy car, the kind of car their parants would have never bought. This is exactly why MG, and Volkswagen and others, are looking for ways to introduce affordable sportscars to the Chinese market.So I think an eventual MG Midget will certainly be manufactured in China, and maybe CKD in England.

  3. I am sure that the market for roadsters in China will grow and that is surely a good thing. I would like to hope, though, that MG’s offering remains classically and internationally credible, which is why the Mazda MX-5 has been such an enduring success, despite. ironically, a brand that for all its real-world credibility has little resonance with brand-freaks. Using CKD as part of the equation also makes sense, but as the core of classic MG remains embedded in its sports car history, SAIC should be clever as well as cautious if they are to exploit the credibility of the MG Midget, MGA and MGB bloodlines. If they plan to sell them in the USA, either British or, perhaps, US or even Mexican assembly surely makes sense?

  4. I fear this is all a load of old bull, I can not see that SAIC would invest that amount of money in a clean sheet product, yes you have mentioned Audi and MINI, but they are already established products that dont rely on China, this car WILL have to rely on China, at least in the short to mid term.

    The new MGTf should it ever happen, should also be made in the UK, it would provide a better heritage image, than importing them from China, but recent history has proven that MG does not necessarily care that the products are not up to snuff, if they did, the engine range, geabox choices and more would be available iin the UK

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