MG RX8 Is A Rebadged Roewe RX8 For The RHD Market
The MG RX8 is essentially a rebadged Roewe RX8, both brands are under the SAIC group.
When it comes to Chinese SUVs, there is entire world of products out there that most car enthusiasts probably have never heard of before. You’ve got marques like DFSK and their Glory 580, Wuling with their Hongguang X concept, and just so much more. Normally, we would ignore most of these entries as they are not destined for export. However, Chinese SUVs today are competitively priced and are quite appealing in the market. Just take the Proton X50 and X70 for example. Both are carbon copies of the Geely counterparts with some rebadging, local assembly and RHD conversion thrown in. And both those models are top sellers in their segments.
So, whenever we hear that a Chinese car company is thinking of doing a right hand drive version of one of their SUVs, our ears always prick up. The latest would be the Roewe RX8. No, not the “RX-8” you were hoping for, but something you might actually be able to convince your wife to get for the house.
The RX8 first debuted in China back in 2018 as their new flagship SUV. It has a rear-wheel drive platform by default with higher trim levels getting AWD. Powering this machine is a General Motors designed 2.0L ECOTEC Turbo engine. It puts out 224hp and 360Nm of torque through a 6-speed conventional automatic. It’s quite a large product as well, with 3 rows of seats and an overall length of more than 4.9 metres.
The reason we’re covering this 3 year old car now is because it’s rumoured to be coming to the Indian market in the form of the MG RX8. The MG brand is owned by SAIC and they have been known to create right-hand drive versions of cars for markets like India and Thailand.
The car itself exists as a LHD version for the middle east, and we haven’t heard any updates since 2019. It was apparently supposed to debut in India last year, but we have a feeling the pandemic may have set plans back a little.
While there still isn’t an actual conversion to right hand drive yet, the chances that MG will do that are on the high side. We’ve heard other Roewe models will be sold in India under the MG marque too.
About the Author
Subhash Nair Written work on dsf.my. @subhashtag on instagram. Autophiles Malaysia on Youtube.
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