Chinese car manufacturer plans new MG assembly plant in US

China’s oldest car manufacturer plans to build a US assembly plant in southern Oklahoma to help revive the MG automotive brand.

Nanjing Automobile Corporation will locate a manufacturing facility and parts distribution centre at the Ardmore Air Park, said Duke Hale, the company’s new president and chief executive.

Oklahoma City will be the site of the company’s global headquarters for sales, marketing and distribution outside Asia. A new research and development facility will be housed at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

The Oklahoma operations are part of a global business strategy by the newly-formed MG Motors, which also plans to build vehicles in Nanjing, China, NAC’s home, as well as resume production at the Longbridge assembly plant near Birmingham.

“We’re positioning ourselves as a global car,” Hale said. “Our vision is to try to create a world-class car in a world-class company.”

A formal announcement was planned today in Oklahoma City.

Hale said Oklahoma was one of several locations the company considered for the plant, and called the state’s incentive package “pretty darn aggressive”. The state is offering Nanjing tax breaks for job creation and a new business development fund.

At full capacity, MG Motors is expected to create about 550 jobs in Oklahoma.

MG was Britain’s last independent car manufacturer but had not produced a new model since 1998. In the 1960s, the company turned out 40% of the cars bought in Britain.

The Ardmore investment comes less than five months after General Motors closed its Oklahoma City assembly plant, the first of 12 facilities the company plans to shutter by 2008 as it struggles to bring production in line with market demand. The Oklahoma City plant produced sport utility vehicles including the Chevrolet Trailblazer EXT and employed 2,200 hourly and 200 salaried workers.

The cost of the proposed assembly plant and distribution facility is not yet known, but the total capital investment in reviving the MG exceeds $2bn (€1.6bn), including MG’s new operations in China, reopening the facility in the UK and building new facilities in Oklahoma.

Nanjing acquired MG Rover Group Ltd. last year and plans to reintroduce the cars in China and Europe before the first MG rolls off the assembly line in Ardmore in the third quarter of 2008. The company expects to start construction early next year.

MG Motors plans to offer a full range of sports cars and saloons. The Oklahoma plant will produce a newly designed TF Coupe. The rear wheel drive two-seater was designed by MG’s former owners, but never built.

Three saloons will be built at Nanjing’s facilities in China and the MG TF roadster will be built at the former MG Rover factory in Longbridge.