Chinese to make MG in Oklahoma?

Somehow it seemed just downright weird. But right in the heart of America --Oklahoma, actually, at Ardmore--China's oldest carmaker says it will build an assembly plant to build MGs, the old English sports car brand.

Nanjing Automobile Corp. will establish a manufacturing facility and parts distribution center at Ardmore and make Oklahoma City its global headquarters for sales, marketing and distribution outside of Asia. A research and development facility will be housed at the University of Oklahoma at Norman.

Oklahoma, always considered one of the most conservative of states, to be the home of a company from a Communist nation? Who would have ever thought of that?

Nanjing bought MG Rover Group Ltd. last year and plans to invest more than $2 billion to reintroduce the car in China and Europe as well as build the Oklahoma plant.

At full capacity the Oklahoma facility is expected to create about 550 jobs at the 300,000-SF assembly plant. The company expects to start construction early next year.

Oh, well. Maybe someday Arkansas will eventually snag the long-elusive auto assembly plant.