SsangYong in Australia is about to enter a new era as it prepares to launch a new rival to the Toyota RAV4 and the market’s first electric vehicle (EV) – and it’s getting a new name too.
KGM SsangYong signs have been spotted locally and Car expert understand that this name will be used for marketing purposes in Australia.
However, Car expert It is understood that the cars themselves will not carry the KGM brand – or the SsangYong brand – and will instead continue to be branded with the company’s current winged logo.
The launch of the new name is expected to coincide with the start of Torres on sale around October.
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Torres
Australia is the latest to follow suit, with the UK switching to KGM in 2023 and New Zealand doing the same earlier this year.
Notably, the SsangYong name remains here – albeit with a new prefix – while most other markets have dropped the name altogether.
“We decided to use the new name to make the most of SsangYong Motor’s strengths,” SsangYong and KG Group chairman Kwak Jae-sun said in December 2022.
“Under the name SsangYong, the company has a huge fan base but also a painful image.”
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Torres EVX
KG Group acquired SsangYong in late 2022 and began rebranding it as KG Mobility (or KGM for short).
The local rebranding will coincide with the brand’s first all-new product in years.
The Torres mid-size crossover will debut in September in a gas-powered version, while the EVX electric version is scheduled to arrive in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Although the EVX is not SsangYong’s first electric vehicle, it is the first to be distributed in our market.
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Actyon
This week, SsangYong also revealed the revived Actyon, which looks like a coupe-like SUV similar to the Torres.
The company said it is considering this for our market.
Torres and Torres EVX will participate in existing major projects Rexton SUVs and related vehicles Musso ute, both of which have recently received updates.
It is unclear what will happen to KorandoSsangYong’s underpowered mid-size SUV, which the Torres shares its platform with, went into production in 2019 and arrived here later that year.
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Torres
The Torres may have bolder and more masculine styling than the Korando, but mechanically they are very similar.
It also uses a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, which produces 120kW of power and 280Nm of torque.
The Torres EVX ditches the internal combustion engine and instead uses a single front-mounted electric motor with 152kW of power and 339Nm of torque.
The car is equipped with a 73.4kWh lithium iron phosphate battery manufactured by BYD, with an electric range claimed to be 462km on the WLTP cycle.
THAN: Everything SsangYong
