MG Hector, Chevy Captiva & Wuling Almaz – Three Rebadged Models of Baojun 530

MG Motor has made an initial success ever since it first stepped into our land with the Hector. You might know it already, MG Motor is a British automotive brand that is owned by SAIC Motor of China so it makes sense if the Hector incorporates some personalities from one of the subsidiaries of its mother company into its bodywork.

As we reported earlier, the Baojun 530 is the MG Hector for China. To say it correctly, the MG Hector has been developed on the platform of Baojun 530 that has been in the production since 2018. But you may not know that before the Hector, the Baojun 530 has been the donor car of the models like Chevrolet Captiva and Wuling Almaz in some other markets. It is understandable as the tech and architecture sharing becomes quite inevitable between subsidiaries, especially with SAIC Motor’s desire to go global.

Having said, aside from the Hector, Baojun 530 also gave rise to the Wuling Almaz - a 5-door mid-size SUV marketed in the Indonesian market. Launched back in February 2019, the Wuling Almaz sourced as much as 43.5 per cent of its components locally. The SUV draws the power from a 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine making 140 horsepower and comes alongside Bosch-derived continuously variable transmission (CVT). The Wuling Almaz resembles the Hector and its donor model as far as the features are concerned, with the shared equipment like a vertically-placed tablet-like 10.4-inch touchscreen infotainment system.

As for the Chevy Captiva, it is a compact crossover developed by General Motors and was sold in many Latin markets such as Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador before hitting the Middle East and Indonesia. Based on the smaller sibling of the Baojun 530 called 510, the Chevy Captiva looks identical to the Baojun, save for some minor design changes and a badge swap. We can say that it is a Baojun 530 under the Chevy skin.

As for India, MG’s next all-new product for the domestic space will be the MG Gloster that had its market debut at the Auto Expo 2020. In a similar fashion, we might see the possible arrivals of some models on the table like the MG RC6 sedan based on the Baojun RC6 or the MG G10 as a rebadged version of the Maxus G10.