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MG has scooped a major design award with its stunning MG Icon concept car.

 

It has been awarded the prestigious ‘Best Concept’ title at the Beijing Motor Show, one of the most sought-after awards on the international automotive show calendar.

 

The MG Icon beat the Lamborghini Urus, Mercedes-Benz Concept Style Coupe and Honda Concept C.

 

Autoweek, one of the USA’s leading automotive magazines, announced the awards and will present MG with an engraved trophy at a later date.

It’s the first SUV concept car from the company and was created by the MG global design team headed by British director Anthony Williams-Kenny.

 

The MG Icon takes inspiration from some of the legendary brand’s most famous sports cars including the MGA and MGB GT. Williams-Kenny said: “The MG brand has a unique set of values and heritage and allows us to offer individual design values to our products. The MG Icon represents our vision of a modern MG and we feel that the small SUV canvas demonstrates MG’s capacity for progressive design with respect for its long heritage.

 

“We have balanced familiar brand cues, such as the wide and powerful front end graphic interpretation and, as one would expect, with a strong focus on the unique MG octagon. 

The MG5 was recently unveiled in China for their market. It is UK bound and is rumoured to be here in 2013 / 2014. It is the MG version of the Roewe 350, which if you watch Top Gear, is the car that James May drove when they were over in China.

Obviously what you see in the pictures is Chinese specification and will undoutably change before it appears in UK showrooms. Current engine options in China are the 1.5 VVT, which in chinese spec produces 105BHP. The engine is going to get some reworking before it comes over here, so hopefully the power will be increased to be inline with european standards. The is also a turbo version in the pipeline, rumoured to be around 150bhp.

 

There will of course be a Turbo Diesel as well, which is about to debut in the MG6. Its quite likely there may even be a larger engined version than the 1.5, the New Large engine starts at 2 litre and that would no doubt go down well with the enthusiasts.

If I asked you who SAIC were, would you know? OK, regulars will of course know, but for those who don't, SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) is the parent company of MG Motor UK and is based (as the name suggests) in Shanghai, China and is the largest car manufacturer in China, the largest automotive market in the world. They sold 3.58 million vehicles in 2010, 160,000 of them being MG or Roewe models, a huge increase up from 90,000 the year before.

MG Motor is proud to announce today, the international launch of the MG6, the first all new MG motor car since the launch of the MGF sports car.

Guy Jones, Sales and Marketing Director for MG Motor UK said, “This is a milestone day for the iconic MG brand and for the UK automotive industry. MG has begun the international launch of an all new model that has been designed and engineered here in the UK, for the global automotive market. Currently we only build and sell the mid-engined TF sports car here in the UK, but we can now look forward to expanding the range of MG products.”

The launch takes place at the Guangzhou Auto show in China and is the beginning of an exciting new global future for the MG brand. The launch in China, the world's largest automotive market begins the international roll out of sales of MG6 which includes the UK. Sales in China will begin in January and plans for the UK and other markets will be released during 2010.

It was also announced today that production of MG6 for the China market will begin at the brand new state of the art factory in Lingang, China in December 2009. It is also planned to commence production of MG6 at the Birmingham plant in the UK before the end of 2010.

From the day William Morris started building bicycles at Oxford in the early 1890's, to the launch of the latest MG; the TF LE500, the MG brand has been in a constant state of growth, development and improvement. Since its first day as Morris Garages, MG has grown under the stewardship of some of the most well known, popular and exotic names in British and world motoring.

Successive owners have benefited MG in different ways and all have proposed their vision for its future.  However, one thing each guardian of the MG name had in common was the need to retain the essential Britishness of the company, its values and the cars that it produced.

Fancy a drive of the new LE500 MG TF before anyone else? You can do thanks to a new auction setup in aid of the Chinese earthquake victims.

Leading motor industry companies have got together to raise money for the relief effort supporting victims of the Sichuan earthquake which killed 50,000 but left millions more vulnerable.

Led by Paul Stowe, Project Director at Shanghai LTI (a Joint Venture between London taxi maker LTI and Chinese motor group Geely), and Ashley Sutcliffe, the man behind the highly-regarded China Car Times web site, the initiative involves a charity auction conducted over the Ebay web site.

At 09.30 yesterday the auction went live with participants being asked to bid for a series of ‘priceless prizes'. “The Chinese car companies and Joint Ventures have been extremely generous to the cause – but by pooling our resources, we have managed to squeeze a little bit more out of them, and are offering the chance to bid on some truly ‘once in a lifetime opportunities' to give even more than they already have to the Sichuan earthquake appeal”, says Paul Stowe.

On offer are the following items:

•    Two exclusive 1:18 scale models of Lifan cars (Lifan is a fast emerging car maker with its roots in one of the world's largest motorcycle makers) – the models cannot be bought and have fully functioning features, including opening doors and working suspension

•    A month's free advertising on China Car Times (the space normally costs $1,000) from July to August. CCT receives over 1.6 million page views a week from all over the world and is the premier English-language web site monitoring the growing Chinese automotive manufacturing sector.

•    An exclusive visit to the LTI plant in Coventry UK, home of the iconic London taxi. The offer includes a private tour of the factory, lunch, a drive in one of the latest Iconic ‘Black Cabs' and some special merchandise.

•    Courtesy of NAC MG, a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Longbridge, Birmingham, as it re-launches the MG brand into Europe, along with the heavily revamped MGTF sports car. Included in this offer is a drive in one of the first MG TF LE500 vehicles to be built at the newly re-opened MG factory.

•    A visit to the Lotus sports car plant in Hethel, Norfolk, UK, with a rare chance to try a range of the latest products from the world-renowned brand on the company's own test track.

“Thanks to the generosity of three great British car companies – Lotus, MG and LTI – we are offering prizes that money cannot buy”, says Paul Stowe. “This shows that not only is British motoring alive and well in the UK, but also that the industry recognizes that its social responsibility is global – all the companies are intrinsically linked in China having either wholly owned or Joint Venture companies established there. All companies employ Chinese people and have been deeply moved by the events in Sichuan, and each has individually contributed to the Charity causes supporting the people and the families affected”.

The Chinese charity auction concludes at 09.30 am on 24 June.

Further details about the individual work done by the Chinese automotive industry are at http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/19/automotive-donation-updates/ and at Paul Stowe's own website: www.carryoncabby.blogspot.com

The relevant Ebay links for the auction are:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330244883964
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330244891023
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330244893429
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330244897166
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330244899250

Both SAIC and Yuejin Motor, the parent company of Nanjing Automobile Corporation (NAC) have confirmed the integrated cooperation between each other after five months' delicate planning.

On 26th December 2007 Mr. Hu Maoyuan, Chairman of SAIC and Mr. Wang Haoliang, Chairman of Yuejin signed a cooperation agreement at the People's Congress Hall in Beijing. Also present were Mr. Zeng peiyan, China's Vice Prime Minister, leaders from the National Development & Reform Commission, Shanghai municipal government, Jiangsu province and Nanjing municipal government as well as the top management teams of SAIC and NAC and principals from China's leading automakers.

According to the cooperation agreement, automotive businesses of NAC will be fully integrated into SAIC. Within the business units of NAC, complete vehicle and first-tied parts business will be integrated into SAIC Motor, a public listed company largely held by SAIC, and other business, related to components, service and trading will be within a newly established joint venture, Donghua Company.

After the merger of the two companies, business planning, R&D, sales and marketing, manufacturing and supply chain management will be fully integrated, contributing towards synergy and better performance throughout home and overseas markets. The long term objective of the cooperation is to build SAIC into China's largest automaker with global competitiveness while NAC into a leading manufacturing base in China.

The comprehensive co-operation sets up a benchmark for the optimization and restructuring of Chinese automotive industry. It will improve industrial concentration and benefit the utilization of industrial resources. It will also accelerate the development of independent R&D and innovation capability as well as international competitiveness of Chinese auto industry.

The cooperation is fully supported by China's central government and the respective local governments of Shanghai, Jiangsu province and City of Nanjing.

The cooperation will strengthen the functions of R&D, sales and marketing and manufacturing at Longbridge. The UK business is vital for SAIC to enhance its multinational operations competence.

Following the integration there will be a further input of resources into Longbridge. With the TF being the first product launched, it will be followed by other new MG products.

On 27th July, 2007, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation and Yuejin Motor Corperation had signed the letter of intent, showing both sides are willing to cooperate together and poll resource and assets to avoid competition. (NAC is a subsidiary of Yuejin Motor Corporation, similar to the way MG Rover was under Phoenix Consortium.)

According to the letter of intent, SAIC and Yuejin Motor will the adhere to the principle of a comprehensive cooperation, establishing a joint task force to investigate possible programmes and cooperation in the fields of vehicles, car parts, car sales and services, and the task of reorganising the relevant assets, to bring about the integration between SAIC and NAC.

This act is supported by the provincial governments of the respective companies.

Source: http://www.nanqi.com.cn/docc/news/ne...p?auto_id=1994

English Source: http://www.china.org.cn/english/business/218894.htm