SsangYong's local plans confirmed: New owner KG Group 'very positive' about future of Rexton, Musso, Korando, and Torres Down Under

SsangYong’s local division has confirmed it’s full steam ahead under new owner KG Group, who are said to be “very positive” about a “big future” for the Korean underdog in Australia.

While the brand’s range has contracted somewhat in the last few years with the discontinuation of the Tivoli small SUV as well as popular diesel versions of its Korando mid-sizer, brand spokesperson John Taylor told CarsGuide that things were looking up for SsangYong, both in terms of right hand drive production of new products, and supply of current ones.

He lamented the loss of the Korando diesel, which he said made up 28 per cent of the model’s sales.

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“We’ve got a good business case for Korando diesel, but volume as a share of global output is quite low” he explained, saying the issue was around supply of the all-wheel-drive system, not the diesel powertrain. “It’s not like we’re saying ‘forget it’ but if we can’t  have it for now, we can’t have it.”

Due to what was described as “pressure on operational costs”, prices have also crept up roughly $1000 across much of SsangYong’s range for the 2023 model year.

Mr Taylor said the long-awaited fully electric version of the Korando, the e-Motion, had been delayed thanks to COVID-related supply issues, and while the local division still fully intends to launch the model in Australia, it first needs to hash out its future plans with the new owners in Korea.

Despite the setbacks on the e-Motion front, Mr Taylor was confident the brand’s latest global offering, the Torres upper mid-size SUV, was still on-track to launch before the end of 2023.

“We’ve had a lot of enquiry around that model, there’s a lot of excitement around it at both a dealer level from customers and from the media.” he said.

The latest dramatic development for SsangYong in Korea though looks set to be a branding change. The new owners, chemical industrial giant KG Group, have committed to dumping the SsangYong name globally, replacing it with simply ‘KG’ in the future, the official change set to be decided at a general shareholders meeting in March of this year.

The Korando e-Motion had been delayed thanks to COVID-related supply issues.

Mr Taylor was confident it would be a long time before we saw that change in Australia however.

“No news on the name change in Australia” he said, “At a local level we’re not that far ahead in discussions, so we don’t know if or when there’s going to be an impact. At a global level, yes they’re changing it. There’s a lot to change, and there’s a lot of brand recognition [in Australia] as you can imagine. It has some traction in the marketplace which will have to be considered.”

While costs are up, and there’s still a wait for its latest products, Mr Taylor says the good news is that supply is back for the brand’s current range.

“There was only a wait during the [peak] semiconductor shortage. Since that’s improved supply has started to improve. There are no wait lists.” he said.

Off the back of appealing prices, a continually improving catalogue, and comparatively good availability, SsangYong is a growing brand in Australia, something that Mr Taylor says is keeping right-hand-drive production in the minds of KG Group going forward.