The South Korean car brand SsangYong will probably disappear forever. The new owner will rename it KG Mobility and believes the change will help erase the troubled past and symbolize a new era. Thanks to their favorable price, SsangYong SUVs are also quite popular here.
SsangYong is South Korea’s fourth largest automaker, specializing in SUVs and all-wheel drive vehicles. But it will lose its name, which means “two dragons”. The new owners have decided to change the name, logo and entire corporate identity, writes the motoring portal car scoop.
The automaker, which is struggling with financial woes, was taken over last year by chemical and steel group KG Group, which acquired a nearly 62% stake in SsangYong Motors.
Now the owners want to get rid of the original name, which has been around since the late 1980s, and replace it with the KG Mobility branding and KG logo. According to the portal Herald of Korea the new name must be approved by the general meeting of shareholders in March, which should only be a formality.
“The name SsangYong Motor has fans who have good memories, but it also has a painful image. From now on, all SsangYong cars will be released in the world under the KG brand. Even after the name change, the story of SsangYong Motor it will not change,” said Jae-Sun Kwak, CEO of KG Group, saying the decision to change the name was extremely difficult.
The latest model with the SsangYong logo will be the large square Torres SUV, which debuted last year. The automaker started selling it with a starting price of less than half a million crowns. The Torres was to arrive in Europe as an electric car.
It is the low price that has made the Korean SUV popular on the Czech market in recent years. For example, the Korando model is sold here for less than 570,000 kronor with decent equipment and a 1.5-liter petrol engine. The smallest Tivoli crossover even starts at less than 435,000.
Source: SsangYong
The year before, the SsangYong brand in the Czech Republic was found according to the data Automobile Importers Association 1,020 customers, already sold 2,345 new cars last year. This placed it 16th among all automakers in the domestic market. Immediately behind Citroën and ahead of Volvo, Mazda or Suzuki.
SsangYong’s Czech phenomenon is quite strange. Globally, it was hardly that famous with sales, and the automaker has repeatedly gone through major financial problems. She came close to bankruptcy several times and sought protection from creditors. The year before it had gone into receivership owing to billions in debt and only a new investor has bailed it out.
With the new name he wants to erase the previous problems and start a new stage. It remains to be seen how this will affect the pricing and design of new cars. In any case, the KG Group wants to focus exclusively on electrification.
The automaker continues the original Dong Hwan Motor brand, founded in 1954. The name SsangYong first appeared in 1988. In subsequent years, the brand also belonged to the Daewoo Group or the Chinese SAIC.
walk, TN.cz
