Fast-growing budget-friendly brand MG says it’s poised to receive significant shipments of stock out of China over the following months, which should help it clear supply bottlenecks. 

    While not subject to the massive wait lists affecting many competitor brands, recent Shanghai COVID shutdowns have nevertheless caused supply chain headaches. After all, MG’s parent company is SAIC Motor, headquartered in Shanghai. 

    “Due to global supply chain issues, some of our vehicle arrival dates may be delayed later than originally estimated at the time of order.

    MG Motor Australia is currently working hard with our parent company to reduce this delay to an absolute minimum,” the company said this week.

    “As disruptions to global supply chains ease, we will aim to increase output at our manufacturing facilities in an ongoing effort to meet our increasing customer demand… please be assured we are doing our utmost to ensure as little as a delay as possible.”

    It’s understood that the winding back of restrictions will see a strong return to manufacturing, meaning more availability of MG’s top-selling MG 3 hatch and ZS small SUV, as well as its increasingly popular HS mid-size SUV.  

    “MG remains on-track to receive significant shipments of stock in the coming months across our range of vehicles in Australia and New Zealand.

    “Almost 7000 vehicles are expected to arrive in July,” a company spokesperson told us this week, adding that MG generally shares ship space with no other brands. 

    This number of vehicles is equal to about seven weeks’ demand, based on sales figures.

    This 7000-vehicle shipment comprises a mixture of MG vehicles, including some updated 2023 MG ZS EV electric SUVs, which will hit the market in August.

    The pre-update MG ZS EV was the second top-selling electric car in Australia behind the Tesla Model 3 last year, but competition is growing. 

    MG Australia’s factory-backed division has been one of the great success stories of recent times, with astronomical sales growth coming from its range of cheap products that undercut most of the mainstream by thousands. 

    So far in 2022 to the end of April, it sits seventh in market, with 16,040 sales year-to-date and market share of 4.7 per cent. It sits ahead of brands including Nissan, Subaru, Volkswagen and Honda on the sales charts.

    MORE: MG 3 and Suzuki Baleno, the cheap and cheerful sales stars
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    Mike Costello
    Mike Costello is a Senior Contributor at CarExpert.
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