MG: the octagon badge's century-long road from Morris Garages to SAIC Motor

MG grew out of Morris Garages, William Morris's Oxford retail and service operation, where manager Cecil Kimber began building sportier versions of standard Morris cars in the 1920s. The famous octagon badge was registered as a trademark in May 1924, and a standalone M.G. Car Company Limited was incorporated in July 1930, with output later centered on the Abingdon factory south of Oxford.

The brand then rode Britain's consolidation waves: Morris sold MG into Morris Motors in 1935, the 1952 Morris-Austin merger brought it into BMC, and further mergers produced British Motor Holdings and British Leyland in 1968. Under BL, MG was starved of new product, and the Abingdon plant closed in October 1980 with the MGB as its last car. Through the 1980s the badge mostly denoted sportier Austin Rover models before a partial revival beginning with the RV8.

MG Rover collapsed into receivership in 2005, and Nanjing Automobile Group bought the marque and its assets. After Nanjing merged into SAIC Motor in 2007, production restarted in China under Chinese ownership. The MG6, launched in the UK on 26 June 2011, was the brand's first new British-market model in 16 years, and by 2022 MG Motor had become the fastest-growing car brand in the United Kingdom.