Are they still British? Parent companies of MG, LDV, Mini, Bentley and others revealed

MG Motor is hugely popular with significant sales growth worldwide under new owners.

There have been so many changes in the automotive industry lately that it's hard to know who's who in the zoo.

Globalization has seen more and more car companies change owners, rebrand or change names, and it's not easy to figure out who or what legal entity owns a car company.

You have alliances like Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, but they all keep their headquarters and identity.

Then there's Stellantis, the multinational giant formed from the merger of the Italian-American Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group.

Iconic Italian brands such as Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Fiat are in bed with French marques such as Peugeot and Citroen, all mingling with Dodge and Jeep from the US. And they're headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, because of course they are.

If you've ever wondered about the corporate origins of a particular brand, read on.

Bentley may be German-owned, but it still makes all of its models in the UK.

Bentley

Oh Bentley. The famous Brit...

Wait, that famous German brand?

That's right, Bentley, one of the world's top luxury brands, is under the umbrella of the German giant Volkswagen Group.

Founded in 1919, Bentley went through several owners over the years, including British (or not?) Rolls-Royce, before being bought out by VW in 1998 along with iconic Italian supercar manufacturer Lamborghini and French hypercar brand Bugatti. .

Instead of merging Bentley production with one of the many VW Group factories in Germany or other parts of Europe, all Bentley models are still built exclusively at the Crewe plant in the UK.

Even the Bentayga SUV, based on the Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne and many more. VW has reached an agreement with the British government to build it in the UK rather than at a factory in Bratislava, Slovakia, where other related models come from.

Indian British brand Land Rover assembles Defender in Slovakia.

Jaguar Land Rover

Like Bentley, the former British brands Jaguar and Land Rover have gone through different owners over the years.

Ford is known to have controlled two brands under the umbrella of the Premier Automotive Group, which was an initiative of Ford's then global boss, Australian Yak Nasser.

But in 2008, Indian conglomerate Tata Group acquired Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford for £1.7 billion. By the way, she also bought the rights to three other dormant British brands - Daimler, Lanchester and Rover. More on the latest brand in a bit.

JLR manufactures vehicles in the UK and India, as well as parts of Europe. Australian models are mainly sourced from the UK, with the exception of the Jaguar I-Pace and E-Pace (Austria) and the Land Rover Discovery and Defender (Slovakia).

The MG ZS is Australia's best-selling compact SUV.

MG Motor

Another in a long list of formerly British-owned brands is MG. This is where the real issue comes in...

MG has been around since the early 1920s and is best known for building great, fun two-door convertible sports cars.

But more recently, MG has reemerged as a mass-produced car brand offering cheap alternatives to automakers like Kia and Hyundai.

With models such as the MG3 light hatchback and the ZS small SUV – both top sellers in their respective segments – MG is Australia's fastest growing brand.

After MG Rover collapsed in 2005 due to BMW Group ownership, it was briefly acquired by Nanjing Automobile, which in turn was bought by SAIC Motor, which still owns the MG brand to this day.

What is SAIC Motor? It used to be called the Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corporation and was wholly owned by the Shanghai government.

MG's headquarters and R&D center is still in the UK, but all manufacturing is done in China.

Light commercial vehicle manufacturer LDV is another brand owned by SAIC and was also a former British brand (Leyland DAF Vans).

SAIC tried unsuccessfully to buy the rights to the Rover name in the early 2000s. Instead, he launched another brand that sounds oddly familiar called Roewe.

Mini also still makes cars in the UK.

Mini

Would you believe that there is another British brand now in the hands of another major global player?

In the 1990s, the German BMW Group took over the Mini by default when it bought the Rover Group, but realized that the Mini brand would be a great way to introduce more compact and affordable front-wheel drive vehicles into its rear-wheel drive model catalog.

The original Mini hatchback continued to be produced until October 2000, but then a new modern Mini debuted in late 2000, following the concept presented at the 1997 Frankfurt International Motor Show.

It's still owned by BMW, and the "new" Mini hatchback is in its third generation.

Rolls-Royce is another brand owned by BMW.

Rolls-Royce

Some say Rolls-Royce is the pinnacle of automotive luxury, and even its executives say it doesn't really have any automotive competition. Instead, potential buyers are looking at something like a yacht as an alternative to Rolls. Can you imagine?

In any case, Rolls-Royce has been owned by the German giant BMW Group since 1998, with the company having acquired the naming rights and more from the VW Group.

Like Bentley, Rolls only makes cars in England at its Goodwood plant. 

Volvo owners also own a number of other well-known car brands.

Volvo

We thought we'd add a non-British brand here, just for balance.

The iconic Swedish manufacturer Volvo has been in business since 1915, but the first Volvo rolled off the assembly line in 1927.

Volvo and its sister brand Polestar are now majority-owned by Chinese multinational Geely Holding Group after they were bought in 2010.

Prior to this, Volvo was part of the Ford Premier Auto Group, along with Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin.

Volvo still has production facilities in Sweden, but it also makes most of its models in China and the US.

Geely also owns former British sports car brand Lotus, as well as Malaysian manufacturer Proton and Lynk & Co.