Opinion We Drive to the World Stage in an MG ...

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I wonder how the Chinese economy situation will affect this sponsorship. With the collapse of Evergrande already starting to seep through the wider economy, It surely puts an asterisk on any funds budgeted from China.
 

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I wonder how the Chinese economy situation will affect this sponsorship. With the collapse of Evergrande already starting to seep through the wider economy, It surely puts an asterisk on any funds budgeted from China.
Don’t worry, mate. The Club’s revenue is coming from Australian sources via MG/SAIC in Sydney. This revenue will increase generally in parallel with MG’s currently rapidly rising Oz market share.

All the Club has to do is keep driving this partnership hard and fast as if it was … an MG.
 
Don’t worry, mate. The Club’s revenue is coming from Australian sources via MG/SAIC in Sydney. This revenue will increase generally in parallel with MG’s currently rapidly rising Oz market share.

All the Club has to do is keep driving this partnership hard and fast as if it was … an MG.

I'm glad you're optimistic. Australian demand for MG may be up but I worry how many Chinese companies will be affected by CCP policies as they try to cover this mess. Surely if anyone can push through its ... an MG

I will say though, whenever I have wanted to say something derogatory about our Chinese strategy, you as a fellow Veteran, and the work you have done in this area for our club is the thing that has made me check myself. You have done some awesome work and I also think you would have lived a facinating life that would be the envy of many. I hope you are in good health and I hope, if you're still in HK, life is good for you there atm.
 
And the other day Drive.com.au (a Nine Entertainment company, set up by Fairfax before the merger, who took over Car Advice for $60m between 2016-18, then sacked all the staff and archived all their old articles under Drive's URL) confirmed in their article below, that MG were the 9th highest selling car manufacturer in Oz in 2021 and 7th highest selling in December.

They have more than doubled the units sold this year despite Covid the last 2 years, so have gone from 8,326 units in 2019 (20th) to 15,253 in 2020 83.2% increase (17th), to 39,025 in 2021 a 155.8% increase (only 2,240 units behind 7th placed Nissan).

2020 the Oz car market declined by 13.7% on 2019 after being almost 50% down in April 2020 year on year figures, and 2021 was better growing by 14.5% on 2020.


......

The waiting list for many popular cars ranges from three months to 10 months – and estimated arrival times are changing daily or weekly, based on updates from assembly lines.
Most new cars on sale today are equipped with between 300 and 3000 tiny computer chips, but the devices take 26 weeks to manufacture in an environment that must be cleaner than a surgical operating theatre – and the automotive industry is competing with other technology companies for access to semiconductor production globally.
The car industry had been hoping for a return to "free supply" of new cars – and reduced waiting times – by the middle of 2022. But the latest reports out of the US and Europe estimate new-car delivery delays could continue for much of the year.

Chinese brand MG made it into the Top 10 for the first time in a calendar year, ranking ninth (behind Volkswagen and ahead of Subaru) – and ahead of fellow Chinese brands Great Wall Motors Haval (14th) and LDV (18th).
MG also had a vehicle inside the Top 10 selling models in a calendar year for the first time ever, with the MG ZS ranking 10th for the year and 8th in December.



TOP 10 CARS full-year 2021
RankModelVolume 2021 (full-year)Change year-on-year
....

10MG ZS18,423up 235.3 per cent

TOP 10 CARS IN December 2021
RankModelVolume December 2021Change year-on-year
...

8MG ZS1980up 96.0 per cent


TOP 10 CAR BRANDS IN December 2021

7MG3268up 69.9 per cent


Passenger cars: Top Three in each segment in December 2021

Light < $25kMG 3 (863)Volkswagen Polo (504)Kia Rio (345)

SUVs: Top Three in each segment in December 2021
Light SUVMazda CX-3 (709)Kia Stonic (607)Toyota Yaris Cross (504)
Small SUV < $40kMG ZS (1980)Mitsubishi ASX (1052)Mazda CX-30 (953)
 
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I'm glad you're optimistic. Australian demand for MG may be up but I worry how many Chinese companies will be affected by CCP policies as they try to cover this mess. Surely if anyone can push through its ... an MG

I will say though, whenever I have wanted to say something derogatory about our Chinese strategy, you as a fellow Veteran, and the work you have done in this area for our club is the thing that has made me check myself. You have done some awesome work and I also think you would have lived a facinating life that would be the envy of many. I hope you are in good health and I hope, if you're still in HK, life is good for you there atm.
Thank you, mate. Very much indeed.

Your message makes it all worthwhile, for me. To discover there is someone else out there, a fellow Vet, no less, whose feelings have been influenced by something I have been trying to make a success of, is truly emotive.

The world has gone a little bit nuts. America has led the way, but with Trump out of office and getting older and more vulnerable to the inevitable day by day - as am I - I get the feeling that positive adjustment is under way. Covid has been an unfortunate coincidence, but I also feel that Mother Nature is in the slow process of taking care of us.

China. There, too, I feel balance being restored. Don’t let yourself be influenced too much by the media, especially where Murdoch has any input.

Hong Kong is under control, perhaps too much so with the govt. fixed on zero Covid. Last week bars had to close at six p.m. for a couple of weeks, which gets me home early.

The MG partnership makes me proud. To see the vintage octagon on our Club livery sends a warm tingle through me. Owning an MGTF, replica or no, remains on my bucket list.

So does a premiership. But before we get to that Hinkley has to go, Koch has to step down for someone like Christine Zeitz, and Cardone has to disappear with him. I intend to keep working towards all of that, especially the flag.

Your message has added hugely to my resolve.
 
MG had another stellar month in January when the Oz car market went backwards.

Last month, 75,863 new motor vehicles were reported as sold nationally, down 4.8 per cent compared to the same month the prior year, according to data released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).

New-car sales across Australia hit reverse in January 2022 for the fourth month in a row – after 11 months in positive territory – as the industry continues to grapple with chronic semiconductor shortages, production slowdowns, and interruptions to shipping routes. The average waiting time for a new car in Australia has now blown out to three months – say industry analysts – while showroom representatives for some key models are quoting delivery times of six to 12 months.


* January 2022 was a 46.3% growth of 3538 units, over January 2021's 2408 units, which was a 162.0% growth over January 2020's 919 units, which was an 82.7% growth over January 2019's 503 units.

* 7th highest car brand for the month ( big jump to 6th. Ford sold 4528 units)

* 2 models made the top 10 cars sold for the month, both are #1 in their category

8MG ZS1588up 26.7 per cent
9MG 31551up 80.6 per cent

I noticed mid January that on the staff list, Freda Curran, Motor Vehicle Business Development Manager – MG position has left, and not been replaced according to the latest staff list.

She was appointed in October 2020 and I believe she was going to do a similar job that Steve Hunt did working with members to help buy a car when we had Renault as our sponsor. I have no idea if covid meant she couldn't do what Steve did or if her role changed.

If MG get a 40% to 50% growth rate for all of 2022, they will end up #7 brand for the year, easily jumping from 9th in 2021 to 7th, but a few thousand units behind #6 brand. If they get another 25% growth in 2023, they will go to #3, based on current growth rates of #3 to #6 brands, and so then come mid to late 2024 I'd expect them to sign on for another 5 years.

The hybrid EV, and full EV market is the real growth potential segment of the car market. Hybrid EV's are doing well at the moment, but once full EVs take off, MG with the cheapest EV on the market have the potential to ride that wave, and the club has to make sure we assist them, both with doing well on the field and getting plenty of national branding for them, and getting members to buy their cars.
 
VFacts for September came out a couple of days ago.

3/4 of the year done and MG have maintained 7th spot for Top 10 Brand year to date ( up from 28,878 to 33,860 units), a decent margin to 8th spot Isuzu Ute ( down from 28,437 to 27,155 units), but pretty hard to take over 6th spot from Ford even though they had a decline of just over 8% (54,269 down to 45,475) .

But something I have mentioned several times before, - that the club should do some promo with a vertically integrated EV deal with MG and our Premier partner RAA who do deals with solar panels and batteries or with ZEN Energy who do a similar thing with panels and batteries, which Gupta's GFG was a majority shareholder for a couple of years before it decided to just concentrate on commercial solar electricity production and sold out of ZEN a couple of years ago, - makes even more sense after Tesla Model Y come out of nowhere to be the 3rd highest selling model in September and was 7th highest selling brand in September which pushed MG down to 9th for September.

MG have been advertising their PHEV model - Plug in Hybrid Electic Vehicle - HS +EV model on TV for about 6 weeks now, but have never pushed their ZS EV model in TV ads.

Obviously marketing feedback is that in Oz range anxiety is an issue and their ZS EV whilst rated the best value EV in Car Sales 2021 Best Electric Vehicle award it finished only 8th of the top 8 cars, partly because its range before a recharge was at the low end. It slipped to 12th in 2022 mainly because there were more models as well as its resale value being below average.

.....

Electric-car specialist Tesla recorded 5969 deliveries in September – its best monthly sales result on record, and nearly double its previous best result of 3397 vehicles. The tally was enough to rank Tesla as the seventh-best selling brand outright for the month. The Tesla Model Y SUV accounted for 4359 (or 73 per cent) of those deliveries – making it the best-selling SUV in Australia, and the third best-selling new vehicle overall last month.

With 14,023 vehicles reported as delivered since the start of the year, Tesla has surpassed its 2021 full-year sales result of 12,094 with three months to go – and accounted for 64 per cent of all electric vehicles sold since January 1.

The record Tesla result means China became the third largest supplier of new motor vehicles to Australia last month, exporting 14,889 vehicles – behind Japan (23,880) and Thailand (20,663), but ahead of South Korea (14,443) for what's believed to be the first time.
Sales of electric vehicles tallied 7247 in September – or 21,771 since the start of the year, up 117 per cent on 2021 figures when Tesla is excluded, or 510 per cent with it included, as Tesla did not report sales data to VFACTS reports last year.

One Chinese brand finished in the Top 10 – MG in ninth with 3261 sales – while compatriot Great Wall Motors (GWM) Haval finished in 11th, with 3050 sales.
.....
Since the start of the year, 811,130 vehicles have been reported as sold – down 0.6 per cent where the market was in 2021, down fractionally on 2019 (811,464), and down 8.8 per cent on 2017 (889,168), when a record 1.19 million new vehicles were sold by year's end.

[MG up 17.2% for the year to date, total market down 0.6%]
.........
Chinese brand MG placed in ninth – its 18th Top 10 appearance in the last 19 months – while GWM Haval ended the month in 11th position.
Electric vehicles accounted for 7.7 per cent of new vehicles sold in September – while conventional hybrid sales were reported as 4616 (down 33.7 per cent compared to September 2021), and plug-in hybrid sales are listed as 525 (up 74.4 per cent).
 
First 7 months of the year MG maintained its spot as 7th highest selling manufacturer it achieved for 12 months ended 2022 with 49,852 units sold. But it could end the year in 6th spot as Mitsubishi takes a big step backwards with a 25% decrease in sales so far this year compared to first 7 months last year.

The MG ZS model was 8th biggest seller last year, but so far year to date this year, it is # 3.


In a surprise upset, the MG ZS small SUV from China took the third-placed position with 3852 sales reported – up 213 per cent compared to July 2022, and up from fourth place on the leaderboard in June. It is the second time in nine months the MG ZS has finished third on the new-car sales charts, recording the same finish in December 2022 – amid record sales of Chinese cars in Australia.


MG has sold about 2,000 of their relatively cheap ZS EV models in 2023, and now wants to enter the premium EV market to compete with Tesla.

From the story in the link below;

Chinese car-maker MG, has carved itself a place in the Australian market with its cut-price offerings, but the brand is now planning to push into the premium market as well. MG Australia’s boss has said he wants to bring a new luxurious and powerful electric SUV to take on the likes of the Tesla Model Y, Audi e-tron and Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV.

The car in question is called the LS6, it’s a coupe-style SUV that’s part of the IM Motors brand in the Chinese market but would be sold wearing an MG badge in Australia. The car hasn’t officially been revealed yet, but has been previewed and spied in China.
IM Motors is a joint-venture between MG’s parent company, SAIC Motors, the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech company and famous e-commerce website, Alibaba, which is focused on luxury electric vehicles.

IM Motors has revealed three models that MG Australia chief Peter Ciao is interested in for the local market. The LS6 and its larger SUV sibling, the LS7 and the L7 executive sedan, are all seemingly under consideration but Ciao has revealed his priority.
“I’m still working on [bringing those models], and today I can’t give you a clear answer,” Ciao told Australia media. “But I plan to import one, middle-size SUV - the LS6. I have three options, but I’m aiming for the LS6 first.”

The LS6 would be a major departure from MG’s current line-up of affordable and small cars, but Ciao said the brand wanted to expand its reach in the Australian market. The LS6 is available with two different powertrains, both are fitted with dual electric motors. One has 170kW and 304kW front and rear motors and the other with a more potent 200kW and 379kW with 800Nm of torque, making it a genuinely powerful EV.
.....

Before that happens, MG will begin its premium push with the introduction of the MG4 XPower electric hot hatch, which is due to arrive by the end of 2023 and will be priced above $70,000.
It will be joined by the Cyberster electric sports car, which is designed to call back to the brand’s heritage as a British marque building compact roadsters like the MGB, albeit with a modern electric powertrain.
Ciao indicated that the Cyberster would push the MG brand into six figures, with a starting price in the region of $100,000. That’s a long way from the $19,490 MG3 that sits at the entry-point of the range and is one of the most affordable cars in Australia.


 
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Same. Interested in any reviews.
Reviews have pretty much all been positive, it's been around in other markets for a while now. There's some detailed ones on YouTube from dedicated EV channels.

Common comments are that it's good value and competes well with equivalent ICE cars - Corolla, Cerato etc. Base model gets some stick for its interior and performance (lower battery capacity and smaller motor) but may hit the sweet spot for urban users, and has the "safer" battery chemistry too which may assist with insurance costs.

The high performance variant (XPower) with dual motors will turn some heads, and at around $70k should be the cheapest "supercar" around. Don't think that's been released here yet.

Issue with all EVs seems to be with resale value. With new prices coming down and the finite life of battery packs, this is an important consideration for many.
 
I was told last year MG upped their sponsorship contribution to get naming rights for the new High Performance Centre.

Might not be officially announced yet, but the logo is now up on the building, and good timing given their own high performance result.


 
I was told last year MG upped their sponsorship contribution to get naming rights for the new High Performance Centre.

Might not be officially announced yet, but the logo is now up on the building, and good timing given their own high performance result.



👍🥇
Just need the logo to be black instead of red 🙂
 
October V Facts.

MG was the 6th highest selling Brand for October 2023.

RankBrandVolume October 2023Change year-on-year

6MG.........6102Up 21.3 per cent
4Hyundai6620Up 25.2 per cent
5Mitsubishi6395Up 6.9 per cent


Total units sold 10 months to October 2023 48,909 vs 38,891 for 10 months to October 2022 ie 25.8% increase.

Ranks it 7th highest selling brand to end of October like it ended 2022. Total units sold to end of 2022 was 49,582

Ford finished 6th in 2022 with 66,628 units sold, but they have had a good 2023 and are now 3rd with 69,809 units sold. MG could challenge Mitsubishi who was 4th last year with 76,991 but are 6th this year with only 52,109 units sold which is 14.4k down on its YTD figure.

Even though the 2023 MG4 Electric model won carsales car of the year its had a small impact on sales figure total for this year, with good PR kicking in next year.


Top 10 cars in October 2023​

RankModelVolume October 2023Change year-on-year
4Toyota RAV42598Down 19.4 per cent
5MG ZS2537Up 10.7 per cent

Passenger cars: Top Three in each segment in October 2023​

Light <$30kMG 3 (1412)Suzuki Swift (580)Mazda 2 (495)
Small >$40kMG 4 (751)Volkswagen Golf (414)Audi A3 (342)

SUVs: Top Three in each segment in October 2023​


Small SUV <$45kMG ZS (2537)Mazda CX-30 (1646)Hyundai Kona (1378)
 
I was told last year MG upped their sponsorship contribution to get naming rights for the new High Performance Centre.

Might not be officially announced yet, but the logo is now up on the building, and good timing given their own high performance result.



Many thanks, REH.

Made my day.
 
This video story below is more China than MG. This story is more electric vehicle than MG. But given MG and their parent company SAIC are Chinese manufacturers of electric vehicles and MG 4 EV won Carsales car of the year a few weeks ago I thought this would be appropriate here.

Chinese consumers are buying EV's in big numbers - now 30% of all sales. MG/SAIC being a major player means as Oz's take up of EVs accelerates, then they are in the frame to get a decent chunk of that increase here, which is good for Port, and MG hopefully sign another 5 year sponsorship deal in late 2024 / early 2025 and beyond.

Stephen McDonell was the ABC's China correspondent for a decade until late 2015. He didn't want to leave but came home for a few months after ABC said he had to, then he accepted a position with the BBC as their China correspondent. His replacement in 2015 was Bill Birtles who in September 2020 ( along with the AFR's Stephen Smith) had to hide in the Oz embassy for a couple of days as word got out the Chinese were going to arrest him as they didn't like some of his Covid-19 stories as well as the general push back with Oz. He escaped China, then reported on China from Taiwan until 2 or 3 months ago, when he became the ABC's Indonesia correspondent.


 
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