DUBAI: The Chinese owned MG brand has confirmed a new distributor, Al Yousuf Motors, for the UAE as part of a strategy to reboot its presence in the Gulf markets. The Dubai showroom will open April 10 and be followed immediately by another in Abu Dhabi. Three more locations will be added to the network, in the northern emirates, according to a senior official at MG.
The intention is to emerge as a contender in the compact segment, both sedans and SUVs.
For the last eight years, MG was represented by AWRostamani Group. “Some months ago, we decided to effect a win-win separation, because AWRostamani was focused on its legacy brands such as Nissan and Infiniti,” said Tom Lee, Managing Director, SAIC Motor M.E., which owns the MG label. “It was a mutually agreed decision to go our separate ways.
“From that moment itself we had been talking to other potential partners. It was at that time Al Yousuf called me, having got to know about the opening. Al Yousuf had a long association with Chevrolet and now represents Yamaha. We felt Al Yousuf can provide us with the network exposure we needed.”
According to Lee, AWRostamani Group liquidated all of its MG inventory by end-December. But over the next few months, it will continue to handle service requirements on MG models sold by it.
For auto history buffs, MG has quite a lot of legacy riding on it. It started life as Morris Garages, a British sportscar maker, back in the 1920s. Then in a chequered history, it went through many an ownership change. At one point, it was part of the BMW Group.
Then, in 2005, it was acquired by China’s Nanjing Automobile Group, which itself later merged with another Chinese entity SAIC. Now, all of the MG models are built in China, but it maintains a technical centre in the UK.
“Though we are owned by a Chinese company, we still want to maintain that British heritage,” Lee said. “The British tradition is something to be quite proud of.”
The manufacturer is not expecting to set a hot pace on the sales side. Instead, Lee, who was formerly with Hyundai and has quite a deep understanding of the Gulf territory, prefers to clock up steady gains, of “around 100 units a month in the UAE”.
“I don’t see a need to push hard on volumes from day one — the numbers will come naturally in time. We will have the models to push our credentials in the B and C categories. More models will be introduced later this year.
“It was in November last we announced a Saudi distributor. So, last year, for the most part we had no representation in that market and we were in the process of clearing the inventory in the UAE. In Qatar, too, we had no representation. All of that is changing … we will be satisfied with a steady start. My aim would be for 8,000-10,000 units this year from the Gulf,” he added.
And with offers such as a six-year or 200,000 kilometre warranty, it shouldn’t be difficult getting through to value-for-money buyers.
Most of the leading Chinese-owned automotive brands are now represented in the UAE. With the market getting extremely competitive on the pricing side, these brands are gradually managing to acquire some decent volumes.
