MG Motor Explores New Sports Car, Return to U.S. Market

Just the Facts:

• MG Motor, the Chinese-owned British sports car maker that once sold tens of thousands of cars in the U.S., is considering options for a new sports car — and dreaming of a return to the U.S. market.
• Edmunds has learned that exploratory MG sports car work has been scheduled into the 2014 agenda of the recently opened SAIC design studios in Shanghai.
• SAIC owns the MG brand.

LONDON — MG Motor, the Chinese-owned British sports car maker that once sold tens of thousands of cars in the U.S., is considering options for a new sports car — and dreaming of a return to the U.S. market.

Edmunds has learned that exploratory MG sports car work has been scheduled into the 2014 agenda of the recently opened SAIC design studios in Shanghai.

SAIC owns the MG brand.

Sports-car proposals will likely include a traditional MGB-MX-5 roadster, although the company may conclude that Mazda has this market sewn up, according to a well-placed source.

The widely admired 2012 MG Icon concept will also be a starting point for the exercise.

Although the possibility of this new MG sports car being sold in the U.S. is relatively remote at this stage, a re-entry into the U.S. is considered a long-term goal.

The fact that a design exercise is underway is proof that the company ultimately aims to return to the sports-car market.

But it is first keen to establish MG Motor with a more mainstream range of models first. Design work on new MGs and Chinese-market Roewes is carried out at the Shanghai studio in tandem with the design and engineering activities performed at the company's Birmingham, England studio and engineering center.

A new MG sports car is not yet officially in the MG Motor product plan, the company says.

Edmunds says: Don't put your shopping plans for that dream sports car on hold. But the latest intelligence suggests that a new MG sports car could be in the cards — even for U.S. buyers — sometime down the road.