Tidbits from MG: New MG3, reinventing the brand, deleted air-con buttons & more

Travelling to China to find out what's coming down the pipe for the MG brand, Dylan Campbell spoke with MG styling chief Oleg Son about modern and retro design, the next MG 3 hatch, and how much he hates on-screen air-con controls.

Here are some the key quotes from that trip.

On the new MG 4 EV, described as the brand's first "global car" since it came under Chinese ownership in 2005.

Oleg Son: It [MG 4] was the first, as far as I know, car designed from the beginning as a car dedicated for overseas. [Journalist requests clarification.]

Yes, global car, but especially dedicated to the European market because of the roots of the MG brand. There is a big slice of the market potential in the UK and of course other parts of Europe. So, this is something they had in mind from the very beginning.

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On a new generation of the MG 3, which launched overseas in 2011 before reaching Australia in 2016. A replacement is well past due, by most standards.

Oleg Son: This car [new MG 3], as far as I know, will be launched next year. I came to this company in 2020, and this car was already well on its way.

It’s a different platform [to MG 4], but we have a scalable platform, so we choose the platform depending on the cost. Not every platform is suitable for every car.

On designing for the future while being mindful of MG's rich history – with a little dig on the side at today's many retro-obsessed brands.

If you do that, you’re going nowhere.

Oleg Son: I think it doesn’t happen that way [take design influence from old MGs to new MG 4]. It’s always what people think, but it doesn’t happen that way. It’s a fresh car and it’s an EV. It’s a totally new-generation EV with a dedicated high-tech platform, style is completely different. So, they launched something that would stand out for people to know this is the new MG EV era.

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Above: The Cyberster in its original concept form. Hit the link below to see the final production version!

We needed something to tell the world that we are back – and we are reconnecting with our past, with our roots, with our DNA.

The Cyberster production car illustrates what we, myself, the team and the company wants to do… But, we needed something to tell the world that we are back – and we are reconnecting with our past, with our roots, with our DNA.

But, again, it doesn’t always happen like this. Yes, of course we look at the past, but it’s not like "this car had this kind of lamp, so we can be inspired by that" If you do that, you’re going nowhere.

People so many years ago, before the war for example, weren’t thinking so much about what their critics were thinking [about clean-sheet new designs]. Otherwise, we end up doing retro cars – which is not what we want to do. I want to be as modern as possible.

On reinventing the MG brand for the future, under Chinese ownership, with a huge Chinese market to consider, and a global market to be conquested.

We want MG cars to be glamorous again – and for people to say ‘this is so amazing’

Oleg Son: I think MG is the most international brand by definition, because it’s sold outside China. And because of that, it makes sense to reconnect the brand with the past, because the past is important. (Despite above comments about retro design...)

And also because now, and next year, we’re going to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the brand. So, all of this connects together… The Cyberster was greenlighted and became a production car. It was the best way for us to tell the world we are back and we want to be strong. We are confident and we want MG cars to be glamorous again – and for people to say ‘this is so amazing’.

China is a huge market… you see the competition in China, it’s crazy. It’s a war. And, you have so many brands, the competition is so strong and fierce. It’s a dangerous place. So, how do you survive? You have to come up with the right pricing, you have to come up with the right product. But, at the end of the day, what makes the difference between [carmakers] is branding and storytelling – that is something very important.

You have so many brands [in China], the competition is so strong and fierce. It’s a dangerous place.

This is why, for example, Tesla is dominating the market because they have a story. Although it’s quite a young company, somehow it has a story… But, we have heritage, we have a DNA, we have a history. So, I think that, going back to MG, we should build on that, we should benefit from that, we should be aware of who we are – and we should also redefine who we are according to where we come from.

MG is the brand we want to push outside of China… We try to do our best in projects to design globally. That’s for sure.

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A couple of upstarts: Hyundai's Ioniq 6 and the top-selling Tesla Model 3. Read our comparison here.

[Unlike Tesla] we have heritage, we have a DNA, we have a history.

What I would like to achieve, and this may be beyond my power… but I would like the brand awareness to come back. For example, in China when you talk to customers… some Chinese people don’t even know MG.

Some people think MG is a Chinese brand, they don’t know anything about the story. Some people know it was acquired and bought by the SAIC group. Some people know a little about the origins from Britain and the UK; some don’t.

So, it is very blurred for China. When you go outside of China for example, you have a lot of people who are older, who love MG, they know about MG. But, they love ICE petrol cars and cannot except MG to go through the EV era. We have to go beyond that.

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On going from design to engineering and production in just two years.

It’s about the ability and condition for people to make decisions… you have to decide [with no hesitations].

Oleg Son: On the global market for OEMs, it used to be five years, then it became four years. Now, it’s three years, and at SAIC it’s two years… more or less depending on the complexity [from nothing to production car].

Kia now is three years, but it took a lot of time for them to achieve that because when I was at Kia, I was pushing for that to happen, and the Korean engineer was like "uh, the reliability, the quality, we cannot achieve that". They’ve now cut it by one year, but that's still too long. Sometimes when it’s short, it’s better… It’s about the ability and condition for people to make decisions… you have to decide [with no hesitations].

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On the curse, the scourge of heating and air-conditioning controls migrating to on-screen controls.

I don’t like that.

Oleg Son: The situation is very clear now: when we are doing a car, generally that kind of function will be incorporated into the screen – when it’s for China. Because, Chinese younger people are used to that and they can accept it quite easily.

But, when we do the same car for overseas markets, we take physical shortcut buttons… below the screen, in order for us European-Western people to have the right physical shortcut accessible any time. So, that’s the differences we have to kind of consider.

And, if you are a sports brand focusing on efficiency, speed… you cannot spend too much time on the screen to find out where the heating control is. You just have to know, even without looking. So, we are doing that.