MG Motor has officially hit the mainstream, beating Volkswagen, Subaru, Honda and Mercedes-Benz Cars to crack the top 10 manufacturers in Australia last month.
With 3017 sales across its range in February 2021, the Chinese-owned British brand posted its best result ever and monthly growth of 159.4 per cent, good for ninth place on the Australian sales charts.
Its strong-selling products continued to perform well, led by a stellar month for the MG 3 light hatch.
MG’s rise up the sales charts has been well documented, but the company has now achieved its first-ever top 10 result and its products continue to post strong growth. We risk sounding repetitive, but this story isn’t going away.
All three MG model lines – MG3, ZS and HS – posted triple-digit growth in February, with the MG3 and ZS both hitting more than 1300 registrations each.
Pictured: MG 3 
Pictured: MG ZST
The MG3 and ZS also cracked the top 25 nameplates in Australia, outselling the cars such as the Mazda BT-50, Mitsubishi Outlander, Nissan X-Trail, Kia Seltos, Hyundai Tucson, Nissan Qashqai, and Subaru Forester.
The MG3 has firmly established itself as Australia’s favourite light car, returning 1313 sales (+111.8 per cent) last month and earning a 33.0 per cent share of the segment. In February, one in three light car sales came from MG.
MG’s ZS line (which includes the ZS EV and ZST) also sold well in February, with 1302 sales (+262.7 per cent) helping it finish third in the hotly-contested Small SUV segment.
It’s worth noting the Small SUV class grew by a massive 27.4 per cent last month, accounting for 15.2 per cent of all new car sales.
The ZS was only beaten by the Mitsubishi ASX (1489 sales, +10.2 per cent) and the Hyundai Kona (1323 sales, +15.0 per cent). Given the ZS and ZST’s strong ascent up the sales charts this gap could quickly shrink.
Pictured: MG HS
Finally, the mid-sized MG HS returned a more humble 402 sales in February, though this still represents an increase of 118.5 per cent compared to the same month in 2020.
The HS was more popular last month than the Ford Escape (247 units), Jeep Cherokee (37 units), Renault Koleos (37 units), and Volkswagen Tiguan (118 units). It’s worth noting the Tiguan has been in runout ahead of the facelifted range launching imminently.
MG also released the HS Plug-in Hybrid from $46,990 drive-away, giving the brand an electrified alternative to the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid and Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV.
Further to MG’s strong February, if you add its sales figures with its SAIC Motor commercial stablemate, LDV (912 units, +64.6 per cent), then the Chinese automotive group also outsold Nissan.
Pictured: MG ZS EV
MG’s steady increase in popularity shows no signs of slowing down. It’s now within reach of Nissan (3824 units, +0.5 per cent), and could be knocking on Ford’s door (4172 units, -3.0 per cent) within the next 12 months.
The upward trend is reflected across all of China’s brands, with GWM/Haval (868 units, +210.0 per cent) also posting strong growth. Australians bought 5013 Chinese-made vehicles in February, an increase of 149.2 per cent.
