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Sandie
Another make for which we should do some research is MG. New MG models are listed with origin China, but brand owner SAIC has got an R&D centre in Birmingham, where models like MG 3, MG 6 and Roewe 550/MG 550 are credited to have been engineered.
The centre has been operative at least until 2019, then it has been 'downsized', but I don't know which their tasks are nowadays. Their website is no longer active, but it was archived in archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20160303224235/http://www.saicmotor.co.uk/
The centre has been operative at least until 2019, then it has been 'downsized', but I don't know which their tasks are nowadays. Their website is no longer active, but it was archived in archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20160303224235/http://www.saicmotor.co.uk/
In the best tradition of Chinese propaganda there was always a lot of dubious stuff about that facility back in the day, particularly about the number of engineers employed so I'd be very wary about saying UK origin for anything. There was a lot of "Britishness" used in the marketing in some places.
The most accurate sources seem to have both UK and China being involved in the 550/MG 6. I did hear from a good source that the MG3 was developed in China, was never intended for UK sales and then when they changed their minds the UK did the first facelift version to improve the 3 for UK tastes.
UK did a lot of work on "advanced design" (concept cars), powertrain stuff, electrics and work on chassis. I visited there in 2012(I think?) which was about the time of the diesel MG6. Now that was a successful endeavour.