The Chinese car group SAIC, parent company of MG, is interested in car production at the Limburg car factory VDL Nedcar, if MG is very successful in the European market.
This has the European CEO of SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation), Matt Lei, said in conversation with The Financial Times. A step to production in the Netherlands is then ‘an option’, he told the newspaper. Lei told the FD that he was ‘quite well informed’ of the situation in Limburg. But it is not yet possible to say whether the largest car group in China really wants to have cars built in the Netherlands. At present, sales of MG, originally British, would still be too low for such a step.
VDL Nedcar has been looking for a new client for some time now. The German car concern BMW, for which Nedcar will be assembling Minis until 2023, announced last year that it was going to stop car production in the Netherlands. The decision puts thousands of jobs at risk at the factory in Born. VDL hopes to become more attractive to other parties by expanding its facilities and has already stated in October that it will conduct exploratory talks with several parties.
MG is doing good business with the fully electric ZS in Europe and especially in the Netherlands. The plug-in hybrid EHS has now been added and of course SAIC hopes that MG will be able to further expand its market share. Whether it is enough to actually build the cars here, Lei finds it difficult to say: “This is at a very early stage”, the driver responded to the question whether discussions are being held with VDL. “I can’t say anything else about it. It is an option for us. But if we don’t have enough sales volume in Europe, it makes no sense.”