China will start delivery of its nameplate Roewe to the UK in 2009, complete with two new saloon models and a new dealer network .
Roewe is the name given to the car models by Chinese car-maker SAIC who bought the line from MG Rover after it failed to secure rights to the Rover name.
Equipped with new designs and a team of former Rover engineers, SAIC have been developing a new model plan, and presented the WS saloon concept car alongside the Rover 75 stretch and re-hash - the Roewe 750, at the Shanghai motor show, last month.
A UK launch date has been set for early 2009 for both models, which are being engineered for right-hand drive . Left-hand drive models for Europe might appear even earlier in the first months of 2008.
Other models being designed by the Chinese car manufacturers are a light re-fresh of the Rover 25 and Streetwise, with prototypes of both being spotted testing in China .
The Roewe WS concept is thought to be based on a cut-down Rover 75 platform, and features technology that was planned by BMW to underpin the Rover RD60 - the replacement mid-size hatchback for the Rover 45.
The car's sales distribution plan is currently being structured around at least two options, with one being to set-up an entirely new network run by an independent distributor, and the other to piggyback the UK dealers of Ssangyong, the Korean 4x4-producer owned by SAIC.
One of the new distributors could be Dutch company Kroymans, who are responsible for Cadillac and Corvette in the UK .
However Ssangyong UK managing director, Ken Forbes, is optimistic that his current 60 dealers will capture the business .
He said, "We will have a number of Roewe cars available, all with good quality styling and interiors and aggressively priced, and we want to distribute them."
