Oklahoma Global Motors LLC continues to work on a project to bring an assembly plant for the MG sports car to Ardmore after reports surfaced this morning saying the deal had been scrapped.
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Marc Nuttle, chairman of Oklahoma Global Motors, said he returned from China after meetings with joint venture partner Nanjing Automobile Group Corp. to finalize plans for the Ardmore plant.
"Our business plan remains on schedule to finalize these agreements,” Nuttle said in a statement. "We are in the process now of completing all due diligence.”
Speculation over the project's future grew after a report on National Public Radio this morning quoted a Nanjing/MG official saying the company's Oklahoma plans had been shelved.
"My understanding is that there is no more plans with the Oklahoma plant,” MG's Paul Stowe told NPR. "We are discussing possible ventures in America in the future, but I don't believe there's anything on the table at the moment with Oklahoma.”
British media reports have identified Stowe as quality director for Nanjing's MG division. He relocated to China from MG's former factory in Longbridge near Birmingham, England.
A joint statement from state and local officials in Oklahoma said Stowe was not speaking on behalf of the company.
"This individual is not a senior member of the team working with Oklahoma Global Motors and is not currently involved in moving the project forward,” the statement said. "Representatives from NAC MG in the U.K. have confirmed that his statement was not an official announcement by the company and reflected his own opinion and not that of management.”
Officials said the deal was a complicated project "with individuals and companies on three continents, a foreign government and a former company in bankruptcy.”
The statement was issued by the state, Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, the City of Oklahoma City and the Ardmore Development Authority.
Nanjing's plan calls for the company to do most of the car manufacturing at a Chinese factory. The company then will ship the cars in kit form to a former MG plant in England and to a factory yet to be built in Ardmore. Nanjing and Oklahoma Global Motors also want a research center in Norman and company offices in Oklahoma City. The venture, which represented a public relations coup for the state, could bring up to 500 jobs to Oklahoma.
Lawmakers last year approved $20 million from the state's newly created Opportunity Fund to attract Nanjing to Oklahoma. As part of that package, Oklahoma Global Motors received a $5 million loan, which it paid back earlier this year. The remaining $15 million went toward a $35 million runway expansion at the Ardmore Airpark next to the MG assembly plant. The runway expansion will allow the airport to accommodate large cargo planes.
A lawsuit challenging the funding package is pending before the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
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I think the MG plant will be good for Ardmore and Oklahoma City. It will bring more jobs to the state.
In my opinion unions are just as important today.
Foreign manufacturers generally do'nt have to pay any health insurance as it is funded by the government ( all tax payers). When you add in the cost of retirees health care you are starting with a higher price to make the car. Chrysler is now foreign owned and the wokers for thos thriving German company are union workers. Look at the compensation that the CEO's make at GM, and Ford. Now compare that to what heir counterparts in the 50's made. The increase is far grater than the increases realized by the hourly employees. Unionized domestic auto workers are not the ones who made the decesions to make gas guzzlers when other companies were making what Americans wanted. It certainly was not the rank and file who enginered those autos.
Quit hating on the workers please.
Frankly, I thought the deal was "iffy" from the beginning. I'm not at all sure that any announcement from Nanjing Motors can be trusted entirely at this time.
It's not "crooked leaders" in Oklahoma who have me worried. It starts with all the difficulties of a Chinese company being able to revive and build a British sports car that is marketable on a worldwide scale. Add to that the additional complications of a potential three-country deal.
In addition I have a perspective many Americans don't have I am the proud and sometimes happy former owner of two MG's.
I was much younger then. All cars were not nearly as reliable then. But, unless you were prepared to tinker with your car every weekend, you didn't need a British sports car.
Unless the proposed car is a more reliable, more comfortable, better-performing car than those MG's it will not sell today where there is any serious competition. The Maxda roadster leaps to mind as a far better car.
I think Right to Work it GREAT, Herron! Just think if the domestic auto makers did not have to deal with the unions today, they probably wouldn't be closing all their plants and losing money. Unions were good in their time, but are now outdated.
Follow the money ...which state "leaders" pockets got lined already in this "deal" ? At best its a case of some really bad leadership by our leaders , at worst its more of the typical graft I have come to see in my 4 years in Oklahoma. Third world business practices are right at home in Oklahoma , the Chinese ought to feel real comfortable here. Maybe we can get NAFTA enabled Mexican truckers to deliver the finished product too. They would fit in well at the celebratory cock fight the good ol boys could have to commemorate the first car rolling off the assembly line .
I'm actually really excited to see the deal still on. It's sad that people are so stuck in poor outdated ideas that they can't see the benefits from the deal.
I agree, why come here where you have to deal with higher wages, higher benefits and unions. Look at how well our own auto makers are doing with all that...
Did you really think for minute China really wanted to come here even though our wages and benefits are some of the lowest in the nation. When they can do it at home for next to nothing with cheap slave labor and then send them back to us to buy. Right to work is just great isn't it!!!!
RedChins is not our friend and it would be uncortable to have them in Oklahoma. Subsidy with taxpayer funds of a communist owned and controled firm should be a crime.
Local officials say MG project on track 03/29/2007 With a business plan spanning three continents, the MG sports car revival was bound to hit a few speed bumps on the way. That was the company line Wednesday...
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Thank you for joining our conversations on NewsOK.com. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.
Foreign manufacturers generally do'nt have to pay any health insurance as it is funded by the government ( all tax payers). When you add in the cost of retirees health care you are starting with a higher price to make the car. Chrysler is now foreign owned and the wokers for thos thriving German company are union workers. Look at the compensation that the CEO's make at GM, and Ford. Now compare that to what heir counterparts in the 50's made. The increase is far grater than the increases realized by the hourly employees. Unionized domestic auto workers are not the ones who made the decesions to make gas guzzlers when other companies were making what Americans wanted. It certainly was not the rank and file who enginered those autos.
Quit hating on the workers please.
It's not "crooked leaders" in Oklahoma who have me worried. It starts with all the difficulties of a Chinese company being able to revive and build a British sports car that is marketable on a worldwide scale. Add to that the additional complications of a potential three-country deal.
In addition I have a perspective many Americans don't have I am the proud and sometimes happy former owner of two MG's.
I was much younger then. All cars were not nearly as reliable then. But, unless you were prepared to tinker with your car every weekend, you didn't need a British sports car.
Unless the proposed car is a more reliable, more comfortable, better-performing car than those MG's it will not sell today where there is any serious competition. The Maxda roadster leaps to mind as a far better car.