Rover lives on - in China


A genuine Rover doesn’t fall! Long live Roewe 750!

 

As if the time hadn’t been hard enough for Rover, it showed that the sale of the marque to the Chinese companies was very tricky because of the contrary interests of the participants. On one side there were the trademark rights which had been sold from BMW to Ford, there was the intellectual property at the construction of the models 25 and 75 and the engines, there were production plants, the supplier companies, and there were 2 potential new owners who were quarrelling about the remaining cake pieces.

 

The Nanjing Automobile Corporation (NAC) and the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation's (SAIC) competed for the continuation of the production of the MG and Rover models. In July 2005 lastly, the assets from MG-Rover and from the engine producer Powertrain Ltd went to NAC for 73 mill Euros.

 

NAC continued the production of the MG marque since 2009, first in England and 2012 on the continent, an exciting undertaking for its success we are excitingly waiting for.

 

SAIC again, held the construction and design rights of the Rover 75 range, but because the rights on the the Rover brand, wasn’t available as it was held by the Ford Company, SAIC decided to rename the now Chinese 75 as the ROEWE 750 and placed it on the Asian market.

 

On November 9th, 2016 the production of the ROEWE 750 was discontinued.

Inside Chinese-British, the first new development

How we can hear from the Chinese Car magazines (China Car Times and from Chris Thorpe, Auto Express) there is a new model arising, with assistance from Ex Rover engineers, a sort of successor of the 45, on the base of the 75 platform, with 4 doors in the 2 litre class, which is going to provide some furor.


But the historians among us Rover freaks haven’t given up the hope for the reincarnation of the P6 spirit one day.

MG 7 by Nanjing Automobile Company

NAC holds the rights on the MG brand and is building MG saloons in China and the roadster in the UK, so two similar models are built by two companies but....

SAIC and NAC merges

SAIC and NAC merged together in December 2007, so history goes on and now the former split MG and Rover come together again, albeit the missing Rover brand.

 

It is thought about building other MG cars in the former Longbridge plant which meanwhile has been  built up new again.

 

Perhaps a happy end for Rover and the return of the lost sons back to Britain?
But what is Tata planning with the genuine Rover brand?

 

A well hidden secret?