UK Edition
MG has overtaken Honda, Renault and Mazda as the electric car boom helped its UK sales soar by two-thirds last year.
The almost century-old British car brand, now owned by state-controlled Chinese company SAIC Motor, said a rush of electric vehicles sales helped it move a record 30,600 cars.
Excluding all-electric producers such as Tesla, MG claims to be the fastest-growing mainstream car brand in Britain.
The company has managed to shrug off the computer chip shortage that has dogged other large manufacturers after its owner found alternative suppliers and reduced chip usage in cheaper models.
The strategy helped improve the market share of SAIC’s brands in China last year to more than 40pc and meant production dipped by less than 3pc.
The £29,500 MG ZS SUV was the tenth best-selling electric car in the UK last year, selling 5,380 units, just behind the Vauxhall Corsa-e.
The ZS made it into November top 10 sales chart for all vehicles, the first time the company has done so.
Guy Pigounakis of MG Motor UK said: “This is a sustainable, long-term approach to growing our market presence, having already positioned ourselves as a leader in affordable EVs and great value, high quality cars.”
MG ended production at the Longbridge plant near Birmingham in 2016 and now imports all its vehicles.
It was bought by Chinese state-owned Nanjing Automobile in 2005 and SAIC has owned it following a merger two years later.
SAIC’s other interests include joint ventures with Volkswagen, for which it makes the Polo, Passat and Skoda Octavia for the Chinese market, and General Motors.
Separately, Italian sports car maker Lamborghini said UK sales rose 9pc last year and it moved a record 8,405 vehicles worldwide.
It launched three new models: the Huracán STO, a road-legal model inspired by the Huracán Super Trofeo EVO and GT3 EVO racing cars; the Aventador Ultimae; and the Countach LPI 800-4 to celebrate the model’s 50th anniversary.
The wealthy have enjoyed a period of rapid asset appreciation as global stock markets reached records last year.
While they have been constrained when it comes to international travel, they have instead been spending on luxury cars, with rivals Rolls-Royce and Bentley also trumpeting record sales.