MG returns with brand new concept

20th April 2009

Welcome back MG! It might be billed as a concept, but the MG6 will be on sale in China later this year, and to a dealer near you in 2010.

For the first time since 2001, the wraps came off an MG hot hatch, when the British marque's Chinese owners, Shanghai Automobile Industrial Corporation chose it's home motor show to show the latest product to wear the famous octagon.

The new sporting hatchback shares its underpinnings with the Roewe 550, which is based on the solid undercarriage of the Rover 75. The MG6 is shorter and lighter than the Roewe 550, and in 1.8-litre turbocharged form (likely to be the biggest seller in China), should crack 0-60mph in 8.5 seconds before going on to a top speed of around 130mph.

Although we didn't get a look under the MG's shapely bonnet, we know that it's powered by a slightly reworked version of Rover's K-Series engine, now known as the N-Series. SAIC is believed to be in talks with various European partners over a diesel engine supply deal, including VAG and General Motors - both companies it has Joint Venture deals with.

The announcement MG6 is an important landmark for the Chinese motor industry, as it has been designed specifically for export markets. Chinese buyers are notoriously conservative in their tastes, choosing saloons in preference to hatchbacks. But the MG6 was styled and engineered in the UK by the SAIC UK engineering team, which recently moved from Leamington Spa to Longbridge.