Next year will be Sino-Brit make’s strongest year yet, regional boss vows.

Peter Ciao pictured with regional head of product Akshat Ahuja (right).

UP to eight extra vehicles are coming from MG into this part of the world next year - but how many from that count will hit New Zealand has yet to be clarified.

The local management structure for the once British, now reborn as Chinese make spans Australia and New Zealand, and a big product spruik aired across the Tasman five days ago was by and large repeated in New Zealand by the same top executive yesterday.

However, since then MG NZ has suggested that what Peter Ciao, the boss of both country’s operations, has said is valid for our neighbour might not automatically be relevant to here.

How that plays out is a mystery - the brand won’t be more specific than that.

Along with a product wave, MG’s top man is sharing a subtle change of credo for the make, saying it is moving away from being an all-out ‘price-led’ make to one instead delivering a ‘value-led’ proposition.

Speaking at the launch of the new generation ZS compact sports utility, which starts its NZ sales run in a primary hybrid format that is new to the model - but with a premium that puts it above outgoing petrols and just below the fully electric first gen ZS EV that will be around for a bit longer yet - Ciao suggested 2025 will deliver more passenger cars in every major industry segment.

While the new electric vehicle market is in a big slump at the moment, that technology is still at the forefront of this thrust. MG executives yesterday strongly asserted that electrification is still the make’s vision and, says Ciao, “our future.”

Conceivably, the ZS Hybrid Plus media tried yesterday might be the sole mild hybrid choice; everything else will be in plug-in hybrid and fully electric form. Formats Kiwis have been cold-shouldering in 2024, after a hot couple of years.

Those opportunities span a large seven-seater sports utility, a mid-sized sports sedan and possibly some premium offerings potentially sitting up in the same pricing sphere as the make’s most expensive current offer, the $129,000 Cyberster sports car.

First here will be a plug-in hybrid edition of the HS medium SUV that recently launched in pure petrol form and a seven-seat SUV, both of which Ciao asserts will be game-changers for MG.

“We consider hybrid is the future based on fuel efficiency and performance and MG provides all the solutions … PHEV, HEV, BEV and ICE.

“We currently have seven models but now we are going to the next phase following our three year plan,” he stated.

The notable absentee from the push is the kind of vehicles Kiwis love most, at least when behind a Ford badge.

MG parent SAIC - previously Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation - has a dual cab one-tonne utility on the brew to take on the market-dominating Ranger, but it’s not set for release until later in this decade.

Neither Ciao nor any of his subordinates would reveal the full list of models headed toward this region next year, but a fully-electric compact SUV to replace the ZS EV has been confirmed already, likely at mid-2025. That car represents as the ES5 in China.

Also coming seems to bigger brother mid-size electric SUV in the third quarter, the seven-seater large SUV and a sporty sedan.

Logic would suggest the best bet for filling the electric mid-sizer role is a version of the Roewe RX9.

The sports sedan meantime will come in the form of the MG7 fastback, according to overseas’ suggestion.

The change of perception for MG is driven by the delivery of cars of higher sophistication and flair than those MG delivered back in 2019, when it reinstated under Chinese direction.

Then it focused on offering more for less; everything with the first wave of cars was about under-cutting perceived rivals on price.

That effort even extended with its first electric - the battery-dedicated ZS of the day immediately set the then small EV sector on its head by being the cheapest choice when it rolled in back in 2020.

“Best price, best value”, as explained by Ciao yesterday, white likely delivers allowance to pump up the pricing, but not severely.

Also embedded into this new policy is enforcement of all other positive aspects of buying an MG. A strong warranty, technology and engineering improvements, customer enticements and a strong national dealer network.

And better cars. MG executives have made no pretence that, as good as the first generations of the HS medium SUV and ZS compact were, the newly-landed second gen versions are superior in every conceivable way. That’s why they can sustain higher prices.

Ciao reiterated to NZ media a message that he also gave at Australia’s press briefing. That his company has “all the tech solutions, we have the ability and we can do everything”.