The 2020s so far have been a breakout era for electric vehicles, which has created a surge in demand for raw materials for the huge EV batteries and potential windfalls for suppliers.

The industry is coming up to a crossroads where several battery technologies look poised to replace lithium-ion, from more sustainable sodium-ion batteries to complex higher-density power plants and even solid-state batteries.

The latter has been an ambitious goal and a theoretical possibility for a long time, but as early as 2025 there could be solid-state batteries on the market, and one of the carmakers poised to bring this innovation is a long-forgotten British institution aiming to use the cutting edge to revive its fortunes.

The Rise, Fall And Return Of Morris Garages

Of the many car manufacturers interwoven into the monolith of British Leyland, MG is perhaps the most obscure of the names that still persist today.

Unlike Triumph, which has persisted as a motorcycle manufacturer, and the likes of Mini, Jaguar and Land Rover, which have thrived despite some difficult fallow seasons, MG has struggled to forge an identity since the MGB sports car was discontinued in the 1970s.

In the 1980s it was used to market hot hatchback versions of cars such as the Mini Metro, Austin Montego and Austin Maestro to limited success amidst a wave of chaos for the UK car industry.

It was a largely forgotten brand up until 1995 when it would suddenly get a second life thanks to the MG F roadster built during a period of ownership under BMW although designed whilst owned by British Aerospace.

However, when BMW sold the remnants of the Rover Group in pieces aside from the Mini, MG was packaged with Rover and was sold to the Phoenix Consortium, who proceeded to rack up losses of over £1.4bn and collapse into bankruptcy just five years later.

What was left was sold to Nanjing Automobile Group, which was then bought by SAIC Motor, both of which are based in China and used MG as their primary overseas brand, primarily because the Rover name was bought by Ford and later passed into the hands of Jaguar Land Rover.

Giant Leaps Forward

Under SIAC, MG has done well, ultimately becoming a Chinese-owned brand that has had the most export sales, but it struggled for many years to re-enter the European market, where the MG brand did not have the best historic reputation.

However, this began to change dramatically once MG started to develop their own cars as opposed to rebadged cars from other Chinese manufacturers and pivoted towards electric vehicles.

This has helped to drastically reverse the fortunes of the company, becoming one of the few car manufacturers to see growth in 2020 and 2021.

The push towards EVs is a massive part of this, not just because the technology has reached a level of maturation that it is affordable to a much larger chunk of the car-buying market, but because it finally shakes off the reputation MG had built over half a century as being behind the times and built on hand-me-downs.

A particular watershed moment was the MG4 EV, which became the second most successful EV in the UK, below only the venerable Tesla Model Y. It was amongst the cheapest EVs on sale but also received praise from manufacturers such as Auto Express.

However, the space that MG had managed to find some success within during the first half of the 2020s is facing serious competition from a wide range of companies around the world.

With a lot of car companies looking for success with EVs, innovation is key to keeping one step ahead and is something MG is banking on through solid-state battery technology.

An announcement at the Chengdu Motor Show revealed that by the end of 2025, MG will have a solid-state battery option, one shared with other SIAC brands such as IM.

Solid state batteries provide more energy density whilst also being lighter, leading to an exponential increase of watts per kilogramme, as well as being safer.

Unlike lithium-ion, which can become volatile under certain environmental and temperature conditions, solid-state batteries are considered to be significantly safer, and once the technology is developed at scale, can be considerably cheaper to make and therefore sell.

It is a far cry from the company that did not develop a car on its own for nearly two decades and relied on old models for as long as they could possibly be sold. If the solid-state gambit pays off, MG could finally step out of the shadows of its former British Leyland brethren.