European Operations Head
Xinyu Liu
CEO, SAIC Europe
TITLE: CEO
COMPANY: MG Motor Europe
BASED: Amsterdam
AGE: 47
NATIONALITY: Chinese
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Xinyu Liu has spent two decades at SAIC, the parent company of MG Motor. He spent 12 years in logistics and supply chain management, and has also held management positions in purchasing, sales and marketing, network and after-sales. Liu’s most recent position before joining the MG brand in 2020 as CEO France was as executive director of the Skoda division at SAIC-Volkswagen. He was named to his current Europe-wide position in March 2022.
REASON FOR WINNING
SAIC revived the MG brand name and relaunched it in Europe in 2019 with a growing lineup of small and compact crossovers, station wagons and SUVs, with a focus on electrification. It is one of a number of Chinese brands hoping to make a permanent mark on Europe in the transition to electric vehicles.
The brand’s revival started in the UK, but MG quickly expanded into Europe, and now sells in 15 European countries, with 400 sales and service points. MG has already passed many established brands, with 52,546 sales in Europe in 2021, including about 30,000 in the UK – but Liu has much more ambitious goals for 2022, including tripling sales on the Continent. The brand is off to a good start: First half sales are up up more than 100 percent.
A key new model is the MG4, a full-electric small crossover that undercuts competitors from more-established brands on price. It is the first MG on a dedicated electric architecture, the MSP platform, that will underpin a range of future EVs from the brand.