It’s no surprise that MG will be returning to Malaysia – the C-segment MG HS and MG ZS EV have been caught several times on Malaysian soil.

The missing piece to this puzzle was the origins of MG vehicles, would they be imported (CBU) from MG’s plant in Thailand or locally-assembled (CKD)?

While younger readers may not have heard of the MG marque before, it does have an interesting history. Short for Morris Garages, MG was founded in 1924 in Oxford, England. Over the many years it existed, MG changed ownerships multiple times, including under the British Motor Corporation, the British Leyland Motor Corporation, and the Rover Group. 

This iconic British marque was briefly called NAC MG UK after it was bought over by Nanjing Automobile Group in 2005 and was renamed to MG Motors after Nanjing Automobile merged with Shanghai Automobile Industry Corporation (SAIC) just two years later.

After digging through some documents published by Berjaya Corporation, we can now report that MG vehicles will be locally-assembled in Malaysia, more specifically at the Inokom plant in Kulim, Kedah that's co-owned by Berjaya and Sime Darby. 

A small excerpt in Berjaya’s financial documents pretty much confirms it: a new joint venture company MG Berjaya Sdn Bhd’s was registered in 2019, and the company's principal activities include “Manufacture, assembly and sale of Morris Garages brand vehicles and other related supporting services.”

Now that the assembly route has been confirmed, what remains to be seen is the upcoming MG lineup in Malaysia. While both the MG HS and MG ZS EV have been spotted in Malaysia, we’re keen to see if the company plans to introduce the non-EV MG HS to challenge the Honda HR-V, Mazda CX-3, and Proton X50.