So far, China’s cars have only appealed to your common sense head, not your enthusiast heart. So should Porsche and the rest really fear the Shanghai backed, British designed MG Cyberster?
WORDS OLLIE KEW PHOTOGRAPHY WILSON HENNESSEY
Nio. Great Wall. Ora. Build Your Dreams. Sounds like I’m listing a festival line-up of failed X Factor bands, right? Or rejected team names on The Apprentice. In fact they’re some of the biggest carmakers in the world’s largest, most influential car market: China. And before long they might be as household a name here as Tesco, because all of the above are either busy setting up shop in Britain or plotting to make landfall shortly.
As European material and energy costs soar – and old guard giants like Volkswagen and Ford complain it simply isn’t cost effective to make city cars and superminis any more – the Chinese are manoeuvring to carve up the mass market kingdom. Forget the Great Wall. This is a motoring power grab you can see from space.
Of course, if you pick away at the gloss finish on some recent four-wheeled success stories, China’s already pulling the strings away from home. Volvo’s hot streak has transpired with Geely (established 1986, current worth: £10.5bn) signing the cheques. Yes, the same Geely that bankrolled Polestar’s launchpad, creating Europe’s most convincing Tesla rival. And the subscription ‘Netflix for cars’ Lynk&Co brand. And it financed Lotus’s triple threat comeback of a 2,000bhp electric hypercar, a heartland placating petrol sports car and an e-SUV.
Quite reasonably, you’d imagine Geely is an indomitable emperor among carmakers. Wrong. It’s only the seventh biggest game in China. As a football pundit might have it, in the Chinese auto league table the mighty Geely is one of your Aston Villas. One of your Brentfords.
The one with its ribbons on the trophy is the evocatively named SAIC Motor Corp Limited, formerly the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, founded in China’s showpiece metropolis as early as 1955. That means it’s been in business longer than Lamborghini and McLaren. Forget Red Bull Racing – this lot was in existence before Milton Keynes.
Despite being a veritable veteran, you probably haven’t heard of any of SAIC’s car printing brands. Maxus. Yuejin. Wuling? Thought not. Among SAIC’s 5.3 million cars per year empire there’s only one name that’ll remotely resonate with Brits. MG.
This is where things get ageist. Unlike the Chinese interlopers, you’ve actually heard of the marque itself, but what you envisage as ‘an MG’ varies wildly depending upon the decade of your
