• MG Cars got its name from Morris Garages, which began producing its own customised versions to the designs of Cecil Kimber who had joined the company as its Sales Manager in 1921 and was promoted to General Manager in 1922. • There is some question as to when MG began. Some state it to be 1924, although the first cars bore both Morris and MG badges and a reference to MG with the octagon badge appeared in an Oxford newspaper in November 1923. Others believe that MG only properly began trading in 1925. • The first cars, which were rebodied Morris models, used coachwork from Carbodies of Coventry and were built in Alfred Lane, Oxford. • In 1928 the company had become large enough to separate from the original Morris Garages and the MG Car Company Limited was established. • Space again ran out and a new home was established in part of an old leather factory in Abingdon, Oxfordshire in 1929, gradually taking over more space until production ended there in 1980. • MG was absorbed into the British Motor Corporation. BMC merged with Jaguar Cars in 1966 to form British Motor Holdings, which in turn merged with the Leyland Motor Corporation in 1968 to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation. • Following partial nationalisation in 1975 BLMC became British Leyland. The Abingdon factory was shut down as part of the programme of cutbacks necessary to turn BL around after the difficult times of the 1970s. Though many plants were closed, none created such an uproar among workers, dealers, clubs and customers as this closure did. • After BL became the Rover Group in 1986, ownership of the MG marque passed to British Aerospace in 1988 and then in 1994 to BMW. BMW sold the business in 2000 and the MG marque passed to the MG Rover Group based in Longbridge, Birmingham. The Group went into receivership in 2005 and car production was suspended on 7 April 2005. • In July 2005, the Nanjing Automobile Group purchased the rights to the MG brand and the assets of the MG Rover Group for £53 million creating a new company NAC MG UK Limited. Nanjing restarted production of the MG TF and ZT ranges in early 2007. The TF and the ZT (renamed the MG 7) are assembled in Pukou, Jiangsu Province in China. The MG 3, a rebadged Rover Streetwise, also entered production at Pukou. • In 2006 Nanjing announced the development of a TF sports coupé. • In 2007, merged with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. • The MG range was relaunched in the United Kingdom during 2008, with an updated limited edition of the TF built at Longbridge by NAC MG UK, called the TF LE500. Production of the TF at Longbridge was suspended again in October 2009. • In January 2009, NAC MG UK was renamed MG Motor UK Limited. • The MG 6 hatchback variant of the Roewe 550 was announced in April 2009. It is expected that this model will be assembled both in China, starting in 2010, and at Longbridge, in 2011. • Car models • The earliest model, the 1924 MG 14/28 consisted of a new sporting body on a Morris Oxford chassis. The first car which can be described as a new MG, rather than a modified Morris was the MG 18/80 of 1928 which had a purpose designed chassis and the first appearance of the traditional vertical MG grille. A smaller car was launched in 1929 with the first of a long line of Midgets starting with the M-Type based on a 1928 Morris Minor chassis. Beginning before and continuing after World War II, MG produced a line of cars known as the T-Series Midgets. These included the MG TC, MG TD, and MG TF, all of which were based on the pre-war MG TB. • MG departed from its earlier line of Y-Type saloons and pre-war designs and released the MGA in 1955. • The MGB was released in 1962 to satisfy demand for a more modern and comfortable sports car and continued in production until 1980. • In 1965 this was followed by the MGB GT. • Between 1967 and 1969 a short-lived model called the MGC was released. The MGC was based on the MGB body, but with a larger six-cylinder engine. • MG began producing the MG Midget in 1961. The Midget was a re-badged and slightly restyled second-generation Austin-Healey Sprite. • The 1974 MGB was the last model made with chrome bumpers due to new United States safety regulations and now had thick black rubber bumpers. • As with the MGB, the Midget design was frequently modified until 1980 when the last of the range was made. • The MG badge lived on after 1980 under BL, being used on a number of Austin saloons including the Metro, Maestro, and Montego. • The Rover Group revived the two-seater with the MG RV8 in 1992. • The all-new MGF went on sale in 1995, becoming the first mass-produced "real" MG sports car since the MGB ceased production in 1980. • The MG range was expanded in the summer of 2001 with the introduction of three Rover-based sports models. The MG ZR was based on the Rover 25, the MG ZS on the Rover 45, and the MG ZT/ZT-T on the Rover 75. • In 2011 MG launched the MG6 and MG6 Magnette. • In 2013 MG launched the MG3 • Concept cars include the MG5 and the Icon • The current MG line-up consists of the 2016 launched GS, which was MG’s first Sports Utility Vehicle, and the larger ZS SUV range introduced in 2017 originally badged as the XS. A new MG3 super mini arrived on the scene in 2018 and with electric cars very much in the news, we now have the MG ZS EV SUV and MG4 EV. • MG Cyberster, all-new electric sports car with revolutionary design, combining the iconic roadster heritage with modern brand design language. Poised to open a compelling new chapter in the MG story, expected on sale in Europe in 2024.