SAIC Motor, parent company of the MG and China-only Roewe brands, flung its doors open to its newly extended in Longbridge, UK, today.
The design studio, which originally opened in 2010 following a £5m (roughly $8m) investment, has undergone a further £1.5m ($2.4m) expansion to bring it up to date, adding two new full-size plates, a five-axis milling machine and a new virtual visualization room in the process.
The five-axis milling machine allows models in clay or hard materials to be produced within 36 hours, while the visualization suite features a large Powerwall with 2D and 3D capability. Walls in the room can also be reconfigured when not in use, opening the space between the current studio and the new section to be joined and effectively doubling the studio’s size.
Led by SAIC’s UK design director Martin Uhlarik — now that previous design director Tony Williams-Kenny has moved to Shanghai and taken up the global design director role — the new studio has is the fifth largest automotive design facility in the UK.
