MG’s Iconic Longbridge Facility Taken Out Of Mothballs By Nanjing
The shutters have come off, and Britain’s famed Longbridge factory will once again churn out new cars.
The plant, which had been idle since MG Rover filed for bankruptcy back in 2005, will once again have its power switched on again, thanks to Chinese automaker Nanjing Automobile Corporation.
In a re-christening ceremony at the Longbridge, Nanjing announced that it will build an updated version of the TF sports car the plant, and it marked the occasion by driving three pre-production cars amidst a throng of MG models from the company’s past.
At present, Birmingham’s Longbridge employs just 130 workers, but NAC plans to have 250 laborers up and running by the end of the year. The automaker previously committed to 1200 new jobs, so more positions will need to be forthcoming in order to reach their stated goal.
In addition to restarting the idled manufacturing facilities at Longbridge, Nanjing has pledged to start a research center in Birmingham. Officials have pledged that Longbridge will be a linchpin in MG’s international strategy, so it will be interesting to see how the once-and-future British automaker shapes up.
Comments
Don
Hopefully the Longbridge workers are paid and treated well. That's about the only good thing to come out of this fiasco...besides the cars being built by actual Britons.
Russ Bellinis
Did you guys mean to say TC or an updated version of the MGF? The only TC that I know of was made obsolete by the introduction of the TD in 1950.
Patrick from Astoria
Russ: In one of the more debatable marketing decisions of the past few years, the MGF was renamed the MG TF just before the the whole works collapsed (most recent version).
I can almost see Quen Victoria coming back from the dead to rail against a colonial entity like Cathay being in the position to operate a motorcar concern in Blighty. The horror of it all.
Anyone know what the state of affairs is with the factory in Oklahoma? Is that thing dead for good?
smokeydog001
Maybe the Chinese, unlike the Britts, have mastered the intricacies of automotive electronics.
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