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Section A - General information The Rover Group (and MG Rover Group) The Rover Company Ltd. ![]() Rover 8 motor car (1904) The Rover Company began its life as the Starley and Sutton Company, set up in 1878 to produce bicycles and tricycles at the Meteor Works, West Orchard, Coventry. The Rover name was first used on a tricycle manufactured in 1883, and in 1885 Starley & Sutton introduced the 'Rover Safety Bicycle', the basis of today's modern bicycle. In 1889 the firm became J. K. Starley & Co. Ltd. and in 1896 it changed its name again to the Rover Cycle Company Ltd. It then began to manufacture motor cars at Helen Street, Coventry from 1904 onwards, and the name was finally changed to the Rover Company Ltd. in 1905. ![]() Rover 75 saloon (1949) The Rover Company Ltd. moved its motor car production to Lode Lane, Solihull in 1945, where production of the Land Rover began in 1948, alongside other Rover vehicles. This new site was also known as the Meteor Works, and the original Coventry site was closed shortly afterwards. An updated version of the company's popular Rover 75 saloon was introduced at the London Motor Show in October 1949, and continued to be manufactured at the Solihull site in various forms until 1964. By 1968 Rover had become part of the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), later sold to British Aerospace plc as the Rover Group in 1988. This included the Austin, Rover, Mini and MG marques, as well as Land Rover, and a number of manufacturing sites around the UK, including Cowley, Longbridge and Solihull. In January 1994 BMW purchased the Rover Group business from British Aerospace plc for £800m. At this time the Rover Group employed some 30,000 people and was producing about 440,000 vehicles per year. BMW was producing a slightly larger volume of about 530,000 vehicles per year, and may have been seeking to achieve an increase in scale in a rapidly globalising world market. ![]() Rover 75 clay model (1994) Picture source: AROnline The initial design work for the new Rover 75, planned as a replacement for the Honda-based Rover 600 and 800 models, had already been completed in 1993. By this time, Rover car manufacturing had moved to Cowley and Longbridge, and a new design centre had been opened on the site of the former Triumph factory at Canley, near Coventry. Land Rover and Range Rover production remained at Solihull. Development of the Rover 75 Saloon and Tourer models continued from 1994 onwards, in parallel with the development of the new Mini. Both the Rover 75 and the new Mini drew upon considerable technical input from BMW and its suppliers, with design and development work for both vehicles taking place in the UK. The design and development work for the Rover 75 was then transferred to the newly-built Rover Group design and technology centre at Gaydon (near Leamington Spa, in Warwickshire), which opened in 1996. ![]() Rover 75 Saloon (1999) Volume production of the Rover 75 Saloon began at Cowley in April 1999. BMW then announced in March 2000 that it intended to sell the Rover Group, including Land Rover, on account of the Group's continuing financial losses, and the reluctance of the British government to provide financial support for further development at Longbridge. Ford had already acquired Jaguar Cars in 1989, and promptly bought Land Rover, together with the Solihull manufacturing plant and the Gaydon design centre, from BMW for £1.85 billion within a few weeks of the announcement. Total Land Rover production in 1999 was 178,000 vehicles, with a high proportion of exports. The remainder of the Rover Group was sold by BMW to the Phoenix Consortium on 9th May 2000. As part of this change of ownership, BMW retained the factory at Cowley, and also retained the new Mini, which was almost ready for production. The engine manufacturing division, Powertrain Ltd, was bought from BMW by the Phoenix Consortium six months later, but the gearbox manufacturing facility (Midland Gears) remained with BMW, along with the former Pressed Steel Fisher plant in Swindon, which was renamed Swindon Pressings Ltd. (SPL). These changes allowed Powertrain Ltd to continue to supply engines to MG Rover Group and to other vehicle manufacturers, but required MG Rover to purchase engines and gearboxes for some of its model range, and most of its body panel pressings, from BMW. ![]() Rover 75 Tourer (2001) Between May and October 2000 the production line for the new Mini was transferred from Longbridge to Cowley, and the production line for the Rover 75 was transferred from Cowley to Longbridge. Full production of the Rover 75 Saloon then re-started at Longbridge, and this was swiftly followed by the introduction of the Rover 75 Tourer. New MG versions of the Rover 25, Rover 45 and Rover 75 were also introduced at this time, with over £100 million being invested in the new models, and the company changed its name to the MG Rover Group on 30th October 2000. The MG Rover Group - which now no longer included Land Rover and Range Rover, or the new Mini - achieved sales of over 170,000 cars in 2001. The range at this time consisted predominantly of the Rover 25 and 45, and the relatively new Rover 75, together with their MG equivalents, and the MG F sports car. The total annual turnover of the MG Rover Group and its associated companies for 2001 was £1.7 billion, with approximately 50% of all vehicles produced being exported. Shortly afterwards, the supply and distribution of spare parts for all MG Rover vehicles was transferred into a separate business unit under the name of XPart, with Caterpillar Logistics Services managing the warehousing and distribution aspect on behalf of MG Rover from its site at Desford, in Leicestershire. The XPart business was later purchased from MG Rover by Caterpillar Logistics Services, and a new distribution centre for MG Rover parts was opened at Desford in December 2004. XPart then moved again to a new distribution centre at Hinckley, Leicestershire in the summer of 2014. ![]() MG XPower SV (2003) MG Sport and Racing Ltd was formed in 2000 to re-establish the MG name through motorsport. It introduced the MG XPower brand in April 2001, and competed with two specially built MG Lola cars in the 24-hour endurance race at Le Mans in June 2001 and 2002. The MG Rover Group introduced the V8-powered MG ZT 260 in September 2003, and this was followed by the Rover 75 V8 in March 2004. MG Sport and Racing Ltd went on to manufacture and sell the V8-powered MG SV sports car, launched in November 2003. The MG Rover Group celebrated the 100th anniversary of Rover car manufacturing in July 2004, with more than five million vehicles having been produced by MG Rover, the former Rover Group, and its predecessor companies. By the end of 2004, however, total annual sales of MG and Rover vehicles had declined to around 120,000. The MG Rover Group ceased trading on 8th April 2005 with reported debts of over £1.4 billion. BMW ![]() The first successful BMW motor car was the Dixi 3/15, manufactured under licence from the Austin Motor Company between 1927 and 1932, and based on the design of the Longbridge-built Austin 7. It achieved a sales volume of about 28,000 vehicles during that time. Following the sale of its ownership of the MG Rover group, BMW achieved total worldwide production of more than 1,000,000 vehicles for the first time in 2001, rising to 1,963,798 in 2013, with 20% of sales in China. The BMW 3-series reached a worldwide sales volume of just over 500,000 units in 2013. BMW Mini ![]() The new BMW Mini, manufactured at the Cowley plant, first went on sale in July 2001. It was an immediate success, with deliveries of more than 700,000 vehicles over the first five years, and total sales of just over 300,000 vehicles in 2012 and 305,000 in 2013. More than 66,500 of these were sold in the United States, as compared with 53,500 sold in the UK. By the end of 2013, the total number built since 2001 had exceeded 2,400,000 vehicles, and the 3,000,000 milestone was passed in September 2014. More than two-thirds of these were exported. MG Motor UK ![]() China's largest car manufacturer, SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) acquired the rights to manufacture the Rover 75 in late 2004. Some of the other assets of the MG Rover Group, including the MG name, were purchased from the receivers in July 2005 by NAC (Nanjing Automobile Corporation). NAC also leased part of the Longbridge site from St Modwen Properties, who had acquired the freehold from MG Rover in 2003 and 2004. In April 2006, NAC MG UK Ltd was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of NAC, and following the merger of NAC with SAIC in December 2007, it was renamed as MG Motor UK Ltd in early 2009. SAIC production volumes increased from around 1.5 million units in 2007, to 3.5 million in 2012, and in 2013 the financial turnover of SAIC Motor Corporation Limited was estimated to be approximately £55.5 billion. Assembly of the MG6 saloon car began at Longbridge in April 2011, and the smaller MG3 was introduced in 2013. Jaguar Land Rover ![]() In 2006 Ford purchased the Rover name and logos from BMW for around £6 million, and in 2008, Tata Motors Limited acquired the Jaguar and Land Rover businesses from Ford for a total of £1.15 billion. This included the design centre at Gaydon, together with the Jaguar and Land Rover manufacturing sites at Castle Bromwich, Solihull, and Halewood. With the purchase of Land Rover, Tata also acquired the Rover name. Jaguar and Land Rover were then combined into a single operating company, which changed its name to Jaguar Land Rover Ltd on 1st January 2013. Jaguar Land Rover continues to manufacture the Discovery and Range Rover models at Solihull, and is progressively integrating the Jaguar and Land Rover model ranges. It sold 314,433 vehicles in the year ending 31st March 2012 - the highest figure recorded in the history of Jaguar and Land Rover up to that time - with revenues of £13.5 billion and pre-tax profits of £1.5 billion. These figures were exceeded with total sales of £15.8 billion in the financial year to 31st March 2013, and just over 425,000 vehicles produced in the calendar year to 31st December 2013. The headquarters of Jaguar Land Rover is at Whitley, in Coventry. External links Wikipedia: Rover Co. Ltd.
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