Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), China's largest automaker, has officially opened the SAIC Motor Design Centre near Birmingham, UK, with a 4.7 million pound investment by the Chinese company, media reported this week.

The facility, as SAIC's global design headquarters to employ 300 people, will be charged with designing and engineering of all future models of MG and some of the MG models made by the MG Birmingham plant will be using Chinese-made parts.

Of the 300 staff employed at the site, 30 are designers working on the next generation of MGs which includes a spiritual successor to the Metro, based on the Zero concept shown at this year's Beijing auto show in April.

SAIC has started selling its self-developed MG6 mid-class sedan in the domestic market. The MG6 fastback will be built in the UK later this year, to be followed by a sedan version next year. They will be both be sold the UK and in China.

In the MG design centre in UK, about 30 designers will be working on MG models as well as the Roewe brand, which is built in China. SAIC purchased most of MG's intellectual property after it took over rival Nanjing Auto in late 2007.