Chinese brand is keen to replace Australia’s top-selling light car, but will it be petrol or electric?
MG Motor Australia has expressed its desire to replace the MG3, which remains Australia’s most popular light car despite being 12 years old.
The three-cylinder light hatch is also ‘unrated’ by independent vehicle safety watchdog ANCAP because its testing criteria have expired, and they are unavailable for media evaluation.
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First launched in Australia in 2016, the second-generation MG3 hatchback can trace its architecture back to 2011, and is one of only two remaining new cars still priced under $20,000 on sale in Australia, next to the Kia Picanto.
The MG3 has been a critical model for MG in Australia. It remains the Chinese carmaker’s second most popular model behind the small ZS SUV, and it has helped the brand gain a foothold in terms of volume and brand awareness.
Now, as the current MG3 nears the end of its lifecycle, MG Australia officials are hoping for a petrol-powered replacement that would continue to be an affordable, high-volume city car.
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UK media reports last year speculated that just such a vehicle – with a different name – was in the pipeline, indicating that a replacement for the current MG3 will continue to be offered with petrol power in a bid to maintain its low sticker price, at least in some markets.
If that proves correct and a new MG light hatch arrives in British showrooms sometime in 2024, it’s understood an Australian release would take place 12 to 18 months after that.
However, speaking to media at the launch of the MG4 electric hatch on the weekend, MG Australia executives said both petrol-powered and pure-electric replacements for the MG3 were “under consideration” for Oz, where the MG3 nameplate looks set to continue.
“We’re not walking away from value and we still need products like that, to give people the opportunity to have a brand-new car with a seven-year warranty,” said MG Australia’s general manager of marketing, Rick Whaite.
“It is approaching the end of its vehicle life. We do have a very clear pipeline around things that are in the future but… the UK is a little bit further ahead of us. So the conversations that you’re hearing are in line with where their market sits right now.”
MG is reluctant to reveal a formal end date for the current MG3, which lacks any active safety systems including autonomous emergency braking (AEB).
AEB will become mandatory for all new cars sold in Australia from March 2025 (July 2024 in Europe, where speed limiters and traffic sign recognition will also become compulsory), and will act as a catalyst to further increase the price of bargain-basement models.
MG Australia communications manager David Giammetta told carsales the company is considering both combustion and electric-powered replacements for the MG3, which may become an all-electric model in the lead-up to Europe’s 2035 ban on new combustion-engined vehicles.
“Everything is under consideration but we could essentially take other models from our parent company and then they could take that nameplate [MG3],” he said.
“There’s a demand for the MG3 and we’re keen to continue that model, whatever it looks like in the future.
“There’s a high likelihood that it would [become an EV] at some stage, but at this point we cannot say.”
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