MGs in production again at Longbridge

The first MG cars to be built under Nanjiing Automobile Corporation (NAC) control started rolling off an assembly line at the Longbridge factory today.

Welding, painting and final assembly of the revised TF model takes place at Longbridge, with a revised Euro IV-compliant version of the K-Series engine and many other components sourced elsewhere.

The cars are set to be on sale before the end of the year.

The Nanjing Automobile Corporation (NAC) spent £50m buying the MG brand, the manufacturing rights to its range of vehicles and MG Rover's assets.

NAC's chief executive, Yu Jian Wei, said MG had a "glorious past" and Longbridge had an "irreplaceable role in the MG project" and "This is the re-birth of MG."

The revised TF has had some cosmetic changes, mainly to the front bumper and the headlights, but nothing mechanical. The priority was to get it on sale, and to get the assembly procedures and quality control up to scratch, before evolving the car, he said.

Yu Jian Wei told a press conference after the opening ceremony: "In the not too distant future you will be seeing an upgraded TF, a hard top TF and maybe a whole new product.

"The first group of dealers are being selected. There are many applications, both from previous dealers and from new dealers that would like to become MG dealers."

Mike Whitby, the leader of Birmingham City Council, told the assembled dignitaries and journalists: "I was present here on that fearful night when Rover collapsed. The sense of loss was profound. Many thought that today was a day that would never come. We were told that Longbridge had no future as a manufacturing centre by one or two Jeremiahs.

"Today we see the start of the process that will see the return to quality manufacturing on this site."

NAC says it plans to build 15,000 cars a year at Longbridge in an unspecified "first phase"; not many compared to the 100,000 cars that were produced before the plant shut in 2005, and to the 200,000 MGs that the corporation is planning to build at its plant in China.

So far only 130 jobs have been created on a 469-acre site that once employed more than 20,000. When MG Rover collapsed into administration about 6,000 Longbridge workers lost their jobs.

Trade and industry minister Margaret Hodge welcomed the relaunch as "good news for the Midlands, and good news for UK car manufacturing".