In a reversal of fortunes of both the British and Chinese auto industries, the Nanjing Automobile Group Corp. (NAC), started to make Britain's famed little sports car the MG here in Nanjing.

NAC's new plant in Pukou area of Nanjing can produce 200,000 MG Rovers a year. The company won't say how many cars it will produce this year. Investment in the 300,000-square-meter factory will total 3.5 billion yuan (450 million U.S. dollars) over the next five years.

NAC bought the failed British carmaker MG Rover in July 2005 for 97 million U.S. dollars.

NAC will first make the MG7, a mid-scale sedan, and the MG TF sports car, which the company claims will be the first real sports car to be manufactured in China.

Construction of the new plant started last March. "It's amazing that in just one year's time, NAC has transferred equipment and facilities from the UK and has started producing cars," said Paul Stowe, NAC's quality director who has worked for MG Rover for 10 years.

"The acquisition of UK MG Rover Group has put NAC on the shoulder of a giant. We are confident we'll be able to revive the valuable MG Rover brand," said Wang Haoliang, NAC's chairman.

NAC's Longbridge plant in Birmingham will resume production of MG-TF sports cars next month. Its annual production is expected to reach 50,000 units. The company is considering using the Birmingham plant as the assembly base for exports to elsewhere in Europe, according to Yu Jianwei, president of NAC.