MG 07: the fastback sedan SAIC just launched in China — and what UK buyers should know

The MG 07 is a mid-size electric fastback sedan built by SAIC Motor's MG brand, launched in China on 29 July 2026 at a starting price of ¥125,900 — approximately £13,700 at current rates, or about $18,600. It is not a successor to any car currently sold in the UK. Think of it instead as the car that sits above the IM6 estate in SAIC's global product pyramid: a 4,886mm liftback with frameless doors, an electrically adjustable rear spoiler, and a 2,825mm wheelbase that gives it genuine rear-seat space.

Within 20 hours of opening pre-sales, MG reported it had collected more than 21,000 reservations in China — double the figure achieved by the MG4 Urban over the same period, according to the brand's own announcement on Weibo. These are reservation numbers, not sales or deliveries; they convert to paid orders at varying rates depending on the deposit structure. China's pre-sale reservation figures are a demand signal, not a guarantee of volume. That said, 21,000 in one day for a ¥125,900 car in a fiercely competitive Chinese EV market is a meaningful result.

SAIC has launched the MG 07 in five trims. At the base end, the 650 Comfort (¥125,900) offers a claimed 650 km CLTC range on a standard-voltage architecture, with no LiDAR. The second trim, 610 LiDAR (¥135,900), introduces the roof-mounted LiDAR sensor and Momenta's R7 world model with the X7 chip — enabling Navigate on Autopilot and autonomous parking. The 610 Flagship (¥145,900) and 845 LiDAR (¥155,900) add premium features and the 800V fast-charging platform respectively, while the top 845 Flagship (¥165,900) combines 845 km CLTC range with the full intelligent-driving stack.

A critical nuance for anyone reading these CLTC figures: they are measured on the Chinese test cycle, which returns considerably higher numbers than the European WLTP standard. A car claiming 845 km CLTC would realistically return roughly 500–560 km WLTP — comparable to the MG IM6's 625 km WLTP (388 miles) for real-world purposes. Do not compare CLTC and WLTP figures directly.

The storage numbers are genuinely impressive and worth noting: a 168-litre front trunk (frunk) and 697-litre rear boot. The IM6 estate currently in UK showrooms manages 665 litres in the rear and no frunk at all. If the MG 07 came to the UK with its packaging intact, it would immediately become one of the most practically usable cars in the segment.

The MG 07's smart-driving architecture is more sophisticated than anything SAIC currently offers in the UK, and it is worth understanding precisely because it illuminates the gap between what a Chinese MG buyer and a British MG buyer actually purchase.

Higher-specification MG 07 trims add a roof-mounted LiDAR sensor paired with Momenta's R7 world model running on the X7 chip. Momenta is one of China's tier-one autonomous driving suppliers — ranked second among third-party ADAS providers in China's H1 2026 City NOA installation chart, with 21.4 million units, behind only Huawei's 32.3 million. This is genuinely capable hardware: Navigate on Autopilot (NOA) here means full end-to-end highway and urban assistance, not the basic lane-centring offered on UK-spec Chinese EVs.

The 800V fast-charging platform enters the lineup from the 845 LiDAR trim upwards. Customer deliveries of these higher-end 800V versions are scheduled for October 2026 in China, with base-spec deliveries beginning in August. The IM6, already in UK showrooms, runs 800V architecture and peaks at 396 kW DC — so the MG 07 follows the same hardware strategy, just applied to a different body style.

For UK buyers of the IM6 or MG4, this matters in a specific way: it confirms SAIC is investing heavily in the platform underlying your car. That is a good sign for long-term parts availability and software development — though UK over-the-air updates will continue to lag the Chinese release cadence by months.

No UK launch date has been announced for the MG 07. SAIC has not confirmed RHD homologation or a timeline for European introduction. Any claim you see to the contrary should be treated as speculation — including the sort that sometimes appears in UK motoring media citing unverified 'insider sources' at auto shows.

Here is what we can say with reasonable confidence. The MG 07 is positioned as an eventual successor to models in the MG4 and IM6 price bracket — a liftback fastback in the £35,000–£50,000 zone if it reaches the UK at similar markup ratios to the IM6 (which retails at roughly 3.5× its Chinese price). It competes in China with the BYD Seal and Seal Max, the Xpeng Mona M03, and the yet-to-arrive Zeekr 007 GT. All of those are cars with which UK buyers will be familiar.

The MG4 Urban's June 2026 China sales (14,397 units, 71.5% of SAIC MG EV sales) confirm that MG still relies on the MG4 to drive China volume. The MG 07 is a halo product — it raises the brand's ceiling, it does not replace the floor. UK buyers looking at the MG IM6 or MG4 today should not hold back expecting the MG 07 imminently. But if SAIC delivers consistent quality on this car in China through 2026–27, the prospect of it landing here by 2028 becomes credible.

The MG 07 is not coming to a dealership near you this year. But it is a genuinely significant product for anyone who has already bought or is considering an MG IM6 or MG4.

First, it validates SAIC's investment in competitive EV hardware. A brand that launches a Momenta LiDAR-equipped, 800V sedan with a 168-litre frunk and 697-litre boot is not a brand winding down. The reservation figures, while to be taken with appropriate scepticism, suggest genuine market appetite in China. That matters for the long-term viability of SAIC's UK EV operation — more volume in China means more resources to develop and homologate RHD derivatives.

Second, the gap between what Chinese MG buyers get and what UK MG buyers get is, if anything, widening. The MG IM6 already ships without the Laser + Orin X ADAS stack that the China market IM6 offers. The MG 07's LiDAR-equipped trims deepen that delta further. If you are buying a UK-spec MG for its driver-assistance technology, understand clearly that you are getting a version of the system, not the best version of the system.

Third, the CLTC versus WLTP translation remains essential. The 845 km CLTC headline for the top MG 07 trim should be read as approximately 500–560 km WLTP in European conditions — still an impressive real-world range, but not the dramatic figure the Chinese marketing implies. Never compare CLTC and WLTP numbers directly.