MG has flagged big changes to its Australian operations following an almost non-existent opening 12 months of local trading, believed to stem from setbacks in gaining compliance to sell cars.

The ambitious Chinese brand says it sold “fewer than 50 vehicles” since being introduced to the Australian market last year, something difficult to ascertain as MG (along with some other smaller brands) does not volunteer its sales figures to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. MG (or Morris Garages) re-emerged on the local market under the ownership of one of China's largest car makers, SAIC Motor Corporation Limited.

Fairfax Media has been told by industry sources that MG has been prevented in selling its lone offering, the MG6 sedan, because it cannot meet Australian compliance on three separate issues.

Official documents show the car maker was given conditional approval to import the MG6 in 2012. However, it's understood additional mandatory checks on the cars found issues that prevented their sale.

“SAIC Motor Corporation Ltd received approval for the MG6 variants in 2012, with some amendments to the approval made subsequently as per standard certification processes,” a spokesperson for the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development said.

“Any queries relating to the supply of vehicles or vehicle specifications should be referred to the manufacturer or distributor.”

MG Australia spokesman Andrew Shaw vehemently denied the MG6 had shortfalls in local compliance, and instead put the lack of sales down to the model’s manual-only transmission and troubles around local franchising.

“Because we’re backed by the Chinese government and we’re not a private company, we are very aware of all of our responsibilities and we are making sure that we are keeping up with compliance all the time … We’re certainly keeping on top of all of it,” he said.

Asked specifically whether the compliance issues had prevented MG from selling vehicles in Australia, Shaw said: “No, not at all. We’re on top of all of our compliance; we don’t have a single problem with compliance in Australia at this very moment.

“I’m not going to be specific, because there’s no need to be, all I’m saying is I think you wouldn’t be able to find us being uncompliant. It’s not been an issue really.”

Millions of dollars worth or MG stock - upwards of 300 cars - is believed to be currently laying dormant in locations including the brand’s lone Australian dealership, a former Rick Damelian site on Sydney’s Parramatta Road.

Shaw said none of those cars would be distributed to new dealers to sell to customers.

“Those cars in Petersham are only going to be used for service vehicles and demonstrators, we’re going to insist that dealers are only buying MY14 [model year 2014] stock to sell to their customers,” he said.

“It’s our problem to get rid of the remaining cars. All I can tell you is we are telling dealers we would like them to order MY14 cars to sell.”

To curtail the problem, Shaw said the local arm is preparing to take order of new vehicles in the coming weeks.

Among the new models to be introduced this year will be an automatic version of the MG6 as well as the diminutive MG3 city car, expected to be priced from about $16,000, plus on-road and dealer costs.

“What MG have done is they’ve now sub-contracted all of the right-hand drive manufacturing from the middle of this year to a manufacturer in Thailand,” he explained. “That will speed everything up tremendously, the current vehicles are built in Shanghai.”

Shaw said plans were afoot to expand MG’s dealership network to more than 10 different sites.

Despite the setbacks, Shaw insisted MG was in Australia for the long haul.

“We’ve got owners and a manufacturer with deep pockets and a lot of patience, and they know they need to bring in more products in line with what Australians want to drive,” he said.

“We’re really waiting for that second car to arrive so that we have more than the one-car offering, which has obviously been difficult to sell.”