What excites you most about your role as Head of Product and Planning?

I’m a car guy, and I have worked in the motor industry for 26 years now. Every day I am motivated by the opportunity to work with such a dynamic brand with over 100 years of history and an amazing future ahead of them.

MG’s lineup has expanded fairly rapidly in the EV space. What's the driving vision behind your recent launches?

We have established ourselves as a value brand in the EV market. When the main thrust of EVs was at a more premium price point, we've always occupied a space somewhere between £20,000 to £30,000. MG4 was the car that really defined us as a brand. It's the car that no one else saw coming and the one that's propelled us from 50,000 cars to 80,000 cars in the space of 12 months, and that car has continued to perform really well.

How does MG balance its British heritage with new global innovations?

We might be perceived as an EV brand, but we sell combinations. We sell ICE cars, hybrid cars, plug-in hybrid cars and EVs. So, we already have a strong spectrum of products for anyone. However, my view is that to keep growing, you must continue developing the brand. We have now established ourselves as a 4 per cent consistent, 4 per cent market share player. We launched Cyberster last year, which was a very different direction, but something that the brand deserves.  That’s what gave us the confidence to develop the cars that we've revealed today.

MG's presence over the last five years has been immensely impressive. What goes into planning a car that resonates globally?

Resonating globally is an interesting one. MG is very much the export brand of SAIC Motor, and we are proud that the UK is its largest global market. Although this is really the case in every single market we launch into, it flies the moment that it goes on sale. That’s the power of the brand.

I go to lots of the MG owners’ club events and car shows, and it always amazes me just how powerful the brand is. People come from Australia, Canada, India and beyond. Certainly, at our 100-year anniversary events last year there were people from all over the world attending just to celebrate the brand – and there's not many car brands that have reached that 100-year milestone.

Going back to the original question, Europe – and the UK in particular – is still very much where there is opportunity. If you succeed in these markets, you can be successful anywhere else. That’s why our focus is so strong here from an export point of view. Not only do we have an engineering facility in the UK, but we also have an advanced design studio in London as well. So, we have a very UK oriented presence as the home market of the brand. That presence also gives us a strong influence over a lot of the decisions that are made. Many of the vehicles we’ve been launching over the last four months are the result of decisions that we took two or three years ago.

It's also great to have that portfolio to choose from, and the influence to make sure that what we bring in is right for the market. What I don't want to do, and what I'm very conscious of, is the ability to bring lots of cars to market. At the end of the day, we are a business, we're here to make money for ourselves as well as our dealers. However, we must make sure every car we introduce doesn't trip any of the other ones up. Each car we bring to market needs to be a big part of the business.

EVs are obviously the future. What are MG's biggest priorities in this space?

Affordability remains really important, but what we are emphasising today is value.  The cars we’re launching today are in a £40,000 to £50,000 space, but the amount of technology that's on those cars, the amount of range, charging speed, performance, equipment, innovation, is absolutely staggering. So, although they command a higher price point, a lot of people would recognise they are actually amazing value for money.

On that note, MG clearly wants to transition away from its first generation of EVs with your new cars, like the IM6 and the IM5. Do these cars signal the brand's intention to move away from that space?

I’d say it signals our intention to evolve, we're not abandoning our heritage at all. We're still selling MG4, and MG S5, which we introduced in March this year. A mid-size SUV between £28,000 and £32,000, that's absolutely where our sweet spot is, and we will sell far more of those cars this year than the IM5 or IM6

However, in order to keep this brand evolving, especially as we're under threat from lots of new brands that are targeting the way that we've been successful. We can't just keep doing what we've been doing. We've got to keep looking for different spaces where we can be successful. That's what the IM5 and IM6 are designed to do.

How do you see MG competing with bigger global players in the EV race? You’ve got your budget cars and your more luxurious. Are the higher priced ones your solution going forward to be more of a global player, or arguably would you say you're at that point anyway?

This brand has exploded – not just in the UK,  but internationally. We have gone from 18,000 cars in 2020, to 30,000 in 2021, to 50,000 in 2022, then 80,000, and we’re expecting between 85,000 and 90,000 this year. Sustaining that kind of growth is quite difficult, particularly because, as I said, there are so many other brands coming in trying to replicate what we've done.

So, we've got more competition, which isn’t a problem. Competition is what breeds innovation.  For customers, the amount of choice you have now is unbelievable. The number of brands that are fighting for your money is great. So, we've got to make sure we're bringing the right vehicles to market that offer that value for money element at their core.

I explain this a lot to my colleagues. You can price a car between £40,000 and £50,000, but it can still be great value for money. Historically MG has never been expensive. It's always been within the reach of the everyday buyer, and I will always fight for that to remain one of our most important attributes.

What are some features that you're really excited about in upcoming models?

There are at least ten things which we can talk about in these new models that we don’t offer in the rest of our range. Highlights include an 800-volt platform, which allows incredibly fast charging – up to 396kW. Now, you might not find a charger delivering that just yet, but when one does come out, our cars will be ready. With a 100kWh battery, you can go from 10 to 80 per cent in just 17 minutes.

It's got 742bhp of power, and does 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. It's got air suspension, four-wheel steering, and autonomous driving function. One example, if you accidently drive into a narrow cul-de-sac in the dark, press a button on the dash and the car will remember perfectly its previous 100 metres and reverse itself out, navigating around obstacles completely on its own. There’s functional, meaningful technology on this car.  

There are also fun extras, like nap mode. When stationary, press the nap mode button, and it will recline your seat, play ambient music, set your air conditioning, and you can have a rest. It’s a bit of fun, sure, but it shows the level of thought that’s gone into the user experience.

Honestly, I’ve been in this industry for 26 years, and the tech on these cars still blows me away. I think it’ll do the same for customers.

Presumably the features that you're talking about are in your new sub brand, are you calling it a sub brand?

It's more of a high-end brand, but sold under the umbrella of MG.

So price point won't be within the everyday man's budget?

Not initially, no. However, as we’ve seen across the industry, new technology tends to filter down.  So, we will get to a point in the future where some of the technology will start to filter out into the rest of the range. That's where a technology showcase fits in with our core range of electric cars, with the Cyberster sitting at the top as our halo product.

So that makes it relevant for the normal buyer because they'll see those technologies filter down over the years to the average car?

Absolutely. If you come to a showroom to see an MG4 or an MGS5 and see the MG IM products in the corner – you're going to be blown away by that technology and be impressed with what the brand is capable of. So next time you’re in the market you might be looking for something like that. Then the Cyberster in the corner is the absolute cherry on top. That's the car that everyone would aspire to own.

How would you describe MG's future in three words?

Evolving, exciting and dynamic.

Are the IM6 and the IM5 the first MGs to sit on your all-new E3 platform?

No, these models are not on the E3 platform. The MG4, the MGS5 and a bit of the Cyberster sits on the E2 platform. The E3 platform is the more mainstream platform that the next generation of EV cars will sit on. Although the MG IM branded products aren’t completely separate.

Does the E3 platform introduce cell to body battery integration?

One of the strengths about the MG IM platform is its adaptability for future technologies. So it’s already capable of taking solid state battery technology, which we expect to see within the next couple of years.

And that's an area you're looking into?

Definitely.

Presumably that also means, different battery sizes and powertrains to make it more affordable?

Exactly. For example, the MG IM5 is available with both a 75kWh battery on a 400V platform and a 100kWh battery on an 800V platform – so, there's already some differential use there. With the MG IM6, we felt the 75kWh battery just didn't quite have enough range. So, we've gone for the 100kWh, that said we can always introduce the 75kWh if we feel there's an opportunity for it.

Is it fair to say that the IM SUV is marketed as a premium SUV and is set to undercut the Model Y, in terms of price?

If you look at where we priced it and the MG IM5 I think you will see exactly who we've targeted.

And the saloon Model 3?

Yeah.

Out of personal interest – the Cyber X with the pop-up headlights. Is that something that will make it into production?

I'm not sure. That car was first shown in Shanghai back in March, then we brought it here to gauge the European audience. From what I’ve heard downstairs, about 99 per cent of people love it – I would personally love to bring it to market, and there’s a strong possibility we will. As for the pop-up headlights… I’m not so sure they’ll make it into the final version.

I also spotted the MGEX4 earlier, can you tell me a bit more about it?

That was a bit of fun we did two years ago when we launched the MG4 EV XPOWER. It’s an homage to the MG Metro 6R4. So, it's an MG 4X Power, but done very much to replicate that car with the roll cage, the seats and the body kit, and all the drama. Since it's 40 years of the MG Metro 6R4, we gave it a new colour scheme as a nod to that legacy.

It is just a showpiece, it has the powertrain and was commissioned and built in the UK, with help from RML – so it's very much a British job. 

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