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Roewe

Roewe 荣威
Industry Automotive
Founded 2006
Headquarters Shanghai, China
Products Automobiles
Parent SAIC Motor
Website www.roewe.com.cn
Roewe
Simplified Chinese 荣威
Traditional Chinese 榮威

Roewe is a vehicle marque created by the Chinese automaker SAIC Motor in 2006. Roewe vehicles were initially based on technology acquired from defunct British carmaker MG Rover. SAIC was unable to purchase the rights to the Rover brand name and created the Roewe marque as a replacement. The MG name is preferred in most markets outside China.

Roewe can be considered an indigenous Chinese luxury vehicle brand name alongside others such as Hongqi.

The name Roewe originates from SAIC's failure to acquire the Rover marque from BMW c. 2005 (it was instead sold to Ford in 2006, and the brand is currently owned by Tata Motors). Composed of the Chinese characters Róng and wēi, which roughly mean "glorious power", the name is a transliteration of Rover, although SAIC has stated that it is derived from Löwe, the German word for lion. Loewe, pronounced much like Roewe by Chinese speakers, is also the name of a Spanish manufacturer of luxury leather goods.

SAIC purchased technology relating to the Rover 75 and Rover 25 after the 2005 collapse of MG Rover, and the Roewe marque first appeared on a version of the 75, the Roewe 750. Originally intending to purchase all assets of the failed British company, SAIC was outbid by Nanjing Automobile. In 2007, SAIC merged with Nanjing Auto, so it now controls those MG Rover properties, such as the MG name and a Birmingham factory, the Longbridge plant, that it was initially unable to acquire.


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