CarBrandLogos archive · SAIC Motor · 2006

SAIC MotorRoewe 750

SAIC bought the Rover 75's blueprints, not its badge, and invented a brand to sell it.

Photo: KongFu Wang from Beijing, China · CC BY-SA 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in SAIC Motor history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the SAIC Motor Roewe 750, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

When MG Rover collapsed in 2005, its assets were dispersed. SAIC had already bought the intellectual property for the Rover 75 and its engines the year before, but the Rover name itself was not available, having been secured by BMW and passed to Ford. So SAIC created one: Roewe, a coinage intended to sound like Rover without being it.

2008 Roewe 750 dash · Swoolverton · CC BY 3.0

Design and engineering

The Roewe 750, launched in October 2006 and built at Yizheng, is the Rover 75 with a longer wheelbase, since Chinese executive buyers are frequently driven rather than driving, and with a redesigned nose and tail. Underneath it kept the front-wheel-drive layout and the general architecture, with a 1.8-litre turbocharged Kavachi four and a 2.5-litre V6, and a five-speed automatic. A hybrid version followed in 2010, among the first from a Chinese manufacturer.

Roewe 750 01 China · Navigator84 · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

It sold respectably, and more importantly it gave SAIC a platform, an engine family and a set of engineering practices to learn from at a point when the company had no modern car of its own. Production continued to 2016, with the Roewe 950 taking over. The line from a British executive saloon of 1998 to the technical foundations of one of China's largest carmakers runs directly through this car.

Roewe 750 02 China · Navigator84 · CC BY-SA 3.0

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

2006–2016

Engine

1.8 L SAIC Kavachi Engine

Body

4-door saloon

Technical specification

The Roewe 750, in detail.

Production: October 2006–2016
Class: Mid-size luxury / Executive car
Body style: 4-door saloon
Layout: FF layout
Engine: 1.8 L SAIC Kavachi Engine; Kavachi Inline-four engine; I4 (Turbocharger; turbo Petrol engine; petrol) ; 1.8 L SAIC Kavachi Engine; Kavachi Inline-four engine; I4 (Turbocharger; turbo Petrol engine; petrol Hybrid) ; 2.5 L
Transmission: 5-speed automatic
Assembly: China: Yangzhou, Yizheng
Manufacturer: Roewe (SAIC Motor)