This photo taken March 30, 2023, shows KG Mobility’s all-electric Torres EVX SUV displayed at the Seoul Mobility Show in Goyang, just northwest of Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 31 (Korea Bizwire) — KG Mobility, formerly known as SsangYong Motor Co., said Friday it has signed a knockdown (KD) unit vehicle export deal with a Vietnamese company.
In the deal, KG Mobility will ship the KDs of the Tivoli, Korando and Torres SUVs in 2024 and those of the new Rexton, new Rexton Sports and new Rexton Sports Kahn in 2025 to Futa Group’s Kim Long Motors, the company said in a statement.
KG Mobility expects to export the KDs amounting to 210,000 units of the SUV models valued at 6 trillion won (US$4.6 billion) by the end of 2029, it said.
Kim Long Motors is building a plant to assemble KG Mobility’s KDs into complete vehicles in the Hue industrial complex near Da Nang, Vietnam, the statement said.
Vietnam’s automobile market is expected to grow to 500,000 units a year in 2025 based on its population of nearly 100 million.
Last month, KG Mobility signed a deal to export 7,000 vehicles to New East General Trading Jafza in the United Arab Emirates this year and agreed to later expand the volume to 10,000 units.
In January, it signed a contract to ship about 170,000 vehicles to Saudi National Automobiles Manufacturing Co. in the form of KDs for seven years beginning in 2023.
KG Mobility’s lineup consists of the Tivoli, Korando, Rexton, Rexton Sports and Torres SUVs. It will launch the Torres EVX, which can travel around 500 kilometers on a single charge, in the domestic market in the second half.
The company said it will focus on increasing exports to emerging markets this year to put its business back on track.
Its net losses fell to 60.1 billion won last year from 266 billion won the previous year.
The Seoul Bankruptcy Court approved SsangYong Motor’s debt payment plans in August after the court picked a local consortium led by chemical-to-steel firm KG Group as the final bidder to acquire the debt-laden company in June.
In October, SsangYong graduated from the court-led debt rescheduling program 1 1/2 years after it was placed under court receivership amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Yonhap)
