MG ZS EV Shipping Updates

[IanE]

Meet a chap yesterday that had just picked up a LR Throphy, originally ordered old shape last Sept

 

[JSAND59]

I should read all the posts! I see that in Miles' post he says that those cars offered to them were SR, mostly Trophy, with some Connects and 'some' SEs.
I join you in wondering why none of those cars were offered to dealers who had ordered SR cars.
Dealers have there own channels of communication with MG, some find it easy some hard/not at all!
Even living on the Isle of Wight I would visit MG personally to sort this out!

My message below is me guessing without any research and is simply my thoughts.

I was wondering last night how much investment is required to set up an MG dealership. There will be specific colour schemes, decoration and signage to set up. There will also be contracts with targets, bonuses for achieving sales levels and penalties for not. With all the economic changes, contracts will now need to be renegotiated and the big dealers will have higher overheads - city centre locations, more staff etc. They simply need to turnover more cars to keep afloat. Guess that they will be having weekly if not daily conversations to get cars from MG.
We don’t know what contracts are in place - maybe the big dealers have clauses which mean MG have to supply a minimum amount of cars?

I was also thinking about where a dealer makes money - is it the sale of a car or is it many years of servicing / warranty / repair. One of our members went from Kent to Sheffield area the other week to collect a new car - do you think that he will be taking it back to Sheffield every time it needs a service or has a fault?

What about costs to transport cars to the dealers ? How much would it cost to have car transporters deliver one car to each dealer instead of one transporter load to a single dealer? Who pays for the transport costs?

Basically I think that the larger dealers will have more access to new cars because of the commercial negotiations they can lever. 2 years ago MG were looking to sell 40,000 cars per year. Big dealers would be planning advertising campaigns - local Radio stations, stands in shopping centres etc. The smaller dealer will not have the budgets for this. Now I suspect the larger dealers do not have the budgets for this - everything has changed - pandemics and wars.

My current dealer is a small family run outfit. When my car wants a service the receptionist calls on the way to work - leaves her personal car on our drive and takes our car for the day and then swaps back on her way home.
3 years ago our car had a fault and had to call RAC who couldn’t fix so had to be transported to the dealer. My wife was stuck and it used to take up to 24 hours to get a hire car from RAC on the Isle of Wight - the salesman who sold us the car drove to our house and lent her his car for the day until the hire car arrived. This is a local small family dealership that looks after us.

Unfortunately I guess that the smaller dealer does not have the same leverage as the larger dealer to get quantities of cars and I imagine that if I had ordered the car via a big dealer I would be driving the car by now.

On this basis I am not happy to wait longer than other people for my car, but happy to put my business through a small local dealer who I know will look after me throughout the duration of ownership (when I eventually get delivery of the car)

 

[Dr Robert]

... 498 people will end up annoyed thinking MG are delivering randomly.

Because, if that's what's happening they ARE delivering randomly. You are describing a post code lottery.

I don't know why people feel the need to dream up new excuses for MG. It's not like games consoles as somebody else suggested. MG have a centralised order system. They can see exactly which cars people are waiting for and at which dealers. Cars should not be allocated to dealers as stock if customers on the list have been waiting months for the exact same models/colours. It's not rocket science.

 

[Buchanty]

What I would like to know is how come some orders that were placed this year are getting delivered way before orders for the same car that was ordered last November or December???

Exactly. And I'd really like to know that as well!

 

[Susanna]

What about costs to transport cars to the dealers ? How much would it cost to have car transporters deliver one car to each dealer instead of one transporter load to a single dealer? Who pays for the transport costs?

Just a general response to this part of your post - we pay for delivery of our cars, from memory I think it was around £350, although whether that is just shipping to the UK, or ‘all in’ I have no idea.

 

[Buchanty]

I should read all the posts! I see that in Miles' post he says that those cars offered to them were SR, mostly Trophy, with some Connects and 'some' SEs.
I join you in wondering why none of those cars were offered to dealers who had ordered SR cars.
Dealers have there own channels of communication with MG, some find it easy some hard/not at all!
Even living on the Isle of Wight I would visit MG personally to sort this out!

And I'd come with you, and tell MG what I think of its utterly abysmal PR in relation to our wait!

 

[Buchanty]

Very well explained

Exactly how it should work in 'normal times'.

However in the current circumstances, MG could have reconciled the situation by taking central control, advising people they are 123 in the queue for a Blue ZS Trophy, and allocating based on order date. They could provide a monthly update to say now your are 62 in the queue and so on.

Well said. I couldn't agree more!

But that's exactly how it should be.
If I ordered first I should receive the first car available irrespective of if my dealership gets all of the cars coming off the boat

Thank you. I couldn't have put it better myself!

 

[Buchanty]

My message below is me guessing without any research and is simply my thoughts.

I was wondering last night how much investment is required to set up an MG dealership. There will be specific colour schemes, decoration and signage to set up. There will also be contracts with targets, bonuses for achieving sales levels and penalties for not. With all the economic changes, contracts will now need to be renegotiated and the big dealers will have higher overheads - city centre locations, more staff etc. They simply need to turnover more cars to keep afloat. Guess that they will be having weekly if not daily conversations to get cars from MG.
We don’t know what contracts are in place - maybe the big dealers have clauses which mean MG have to supply a minimum amount of cars?

I was also thinking about where a dealer makes money - is it the sale of a car or is it many years of servicing / warranty / repair. One of our members went from Kent to Sheffield area the other week to collect a new car - do you think that he will be taking it back to Sheffield every time it needs a service or has a fault?

What about costs to transport cars to the dealers ? How much would it cost to have car transporters deliver one car to each dealer instead of one transporter load to a single dealer? Who pays for the transport costs?

Basically I think that the larger dealers will have more access to new cars because of the commercial negotiations they can lever. 2 years ago MG were looking to sell 40,000 cars per year. Big dealers would be planning advertising campaigns - local Radio stations, stands in shopping centres etc. The smaller dealer will not have the budgets for this. Now I suspect the larger dealers do not have the budgets for this - everything has changed - pandemics and wars.

My current dealer is a small family run outfit. When my car wants a service the receptionist calls on the way to work - leaves her personal car on our drive and takes our car for the day and then swaps back on her way home.
3 years ago our car had a fault and had to call RAC who couldn’t fix so had to be transported to the dealer. My wife was stuck and it used to take up to 24 hours to get a hire car from RAC on the Isle of Wight - the salesman who sold us the car drove to our house and lent her his car for the day until the hire car arrived. This is a local small family dealership that looks after us.

Unfortunately I guess that the smaller dealer does not have the same leverage as the larger dealer to get quantities of cars and I imagine that if I had ordered the car via a big dealer I would be driving the car by now.

On this basis I am not happy to wait longer than other people for my car, but happy to put my business through a small local dealer who I know will look after me throughout the duration of ownership (when I eventually get delivery of the car)

Good for you!

 

[Nibble86]

Hi All.

I have been chasing Vanarama for some updates, has anyone received their ZS EV from Vanarama yet? See their email below:

"
Thanks for getting in touch, sorry for not replying sooner.

All of our MG ZS orders have factory build numbers starting with 30000, we just don’t have confirmed build slots from China yet. This is mainly due to the lockdowns of all the major cities in China, in the last few months.

As soon as we have further news, we will be in touch, but please let me know if you have any further questions."

Does any of this help us on knowing when we will get our vehicles? Their last "estimate" was August.

 

[JSAND59]

Just a general response to this part of your post - we pay for delivery of our cars, from memory I think it was around £350, although whether that is just shipping to the UK, or ‘all in’ I have no idea.

Just looked on price list for November last year - £227.08 plus VAT was the buyers contribution for delivery. Assuming the cars arrive at Portbury docks it would be a different cost for MG to deliver to Aberdeen than to Bristol. My thought was that MG will be looking to keep costs down. The cost to send one transporter load of 8-10 cars must be more economical than sending single cars all over the country? It may be a factor why large dealers are getting slugs of cars?

 

[JSAND59]

Just for info - when cars are delivered to the Isle of Wight, the cars are dropped off by the car transporters at the Ferry terminals in Portsmouth & Southampton. The cars are then driven onto the ferry and off again by the Ferry company staff. The cars are then stored in the Ferry Terminal car park until the dealer collects. Usually the dealer will collect the cars using trade plates.
Whenever I use the Ferry it is very common to see brand new cars at the side of the car park.

 

[gasman]

Just a general response to this part of your post - we pay for delivery of our cars, from memory I think it was around £350, although whether that is just shipping to the UK, or ‘all in’ I have no idea.

My invoice quotes Delivery Charge £288.75

 

[IanMG]

Mine says £227.08 +VAT That gives £272.496 or £272.50
Preparation (Whatever that is) £20
First Registration £55
It all adds up!

Years ago I was in Japan when Nissan were setting up the Sunderland plant, and I asked how much does it cost to ship a car to the UK, given that 5000 are on each ship.
The answer was £25 per car!
Costs have risen since then but let's say for fun that it has risen fourfold, so now £100 per car.
On a £30,000 car that is peanuts!
It supposedly costs more to get it from Portbury to any dealership in the UK, with between 8 and 10 cars per transporter!

I just wish my dealership had the same attitude to customer care that your one in the Isle of wight has!
Motorhomes built in the UK end up on the dock at Newhaven, rows of them, and are driven on to the ferry when space permits and collected from Dieppe.
Isn't international trade interesting!

 

[Striker]

I one of the podcasts, just after the LR was released, Miles said that the all UK cars will be delivered in the order that the order onto MG UK was placed. Obviously taking in to account trim and colour variations

That certainly doesn't appear to be happening

 

[Miles Roberts CG]

Mine says £227.08 +VAT That gives £272.496 or £272.50
Preparation (Whatever that is) £20
First Registration £55
It all adds up!

Years ago I was in Japan when Nissan were setting up the Sunderland plant, and I asked how much does it cost to ship a car to the UK, given that 5000 are on each ship.
The answer was £25 per car!
Costs have risen since then but let's say for fun that it has risen fourfold, so now £100 per car.
On a £30,000 car that is peanuts!
It supposedly costs more to get it from Portbury to any dealership in the UK, with between 8 and 10 cars per transporter!

I just wish my dealership had the same attitude to customer care that your one in the Isle of wight has!
Motorhomes built in the UK end up on the dock at Newhaven, rows of them, and are driven on to the ferry when space permits and collected from Dieppe.
Isn't international trade interesting!

Nissan opened Sunderland plant in 1984. A lot has changed since then. A Nissan Micra used to cost £4,995. Now they start(!) at £17,235.

In 2020, the cost of getting an MG from China to Portbury was around £200.
By January 2022, the cost was over £1000 (due to demand for international shipping, and high fuel prices).

The cost of taking the car from Portbury to a dealer (take Chorley as an average half-way up the country - some dealers will be more, some less) is around £200 per car (based on 10 cars on a wagon).

 

[IanMG]

Nissan opened Sunderland plant in 1984. A lot has changed since then. A Nissan Micra used to cost £4,995. Now they start(!) at £17,235.

In 2020, the cost of getting an MG from China to Portbury was around £200.
By January 2022, the cost was over £1000 (due to demand for international shipping, and high fuel prices).

The cost of taking the car from Portbury to a dealer (take Chorley as an average half-way up the country - some dealers will be more, some less) is around £200 per car (based on 10 cars on a wagon).

1984 until now is indeed a long time, how time flies!

Miles, I am not so sure about the cost rise between 2020 and 2022 as SAIC own their own ships. So any cost rise is down to fuel costs, and that will be hedged to a large extent. Should SAIC choose to lease their ships out, then that is just pure profit.
Given that the cost of a MG ZS EV LR has risen, most of that would be manufacturing costs and not very much of it will be transport cost to the destination country, certainly not £800!
At £200 per car, that is a million quid for those 5000 cars, and the cost has not risen to nearly 6 million quid per ship load!
Global fuel costs have risen from $85 per barrel to $100 + per barrel and that isn't 400%!
Let's be generous and say the cost has risen to £300 per car, as a percentage of the total cost that is still very small!
Why did Nissan build a factory in Sunderland, to gain unlimited access to Europe, not to save money!
By the way what is the import duty on a car manufactured in China or for that matter, Korea?

 

[nwarddrfc]

Container shipping has increased massively I know someone who normally paid around 2,000 per container now paying over 20,000 with no dates of when it would arrive

 

[Miles Roberts CG]

1984 until now is indeed a long time, how time flies!

Miles, I am not so sure about the cost rise between 2020 and 2022 as SAIC own their own ships. So any cost rise is down to fuel costs, and that will be hedged to a large extent. Should SAIC choose to lease their ships out, then that is just pure profit.
Given that the cost of a MG ZS EV LR has risen, most of that would be manufacturing costs and not very much of it will be transport cost to the destination country, certainly not £800!
At £200 per car, that is a million quid for those 5000 cars, and the cost has not risen to nearly 6 million quid per ship load!
Global fuel costs have risen from $85 per barrel to $100 + per barrel and that isn't 400%!
Let's be generous and say the cost has risen to £300 per car, as a percentage of the total cost that is still very small!
Why did Nissan build a factory in Sunderland, to gain unlimited access to Europe, not to save money!
By the way what is the import duty on a car manufactured in China or for that matter, Korea?

SAIC has only just purchased it's own ships this year, and are yet to come online.

Import duties are 20% from China.

 

[JSAND59]

SAIC has only just purchased it's own ships this year, and are yet to come online.

Import duties are 20% from China.

Thought it was 10% import duty and 20% VAT?
Could be wrong?

 

[Susanna]

My invoice quotes Delivery Charge £288.75

Mine too. I included the VAT