Ssangyong Motors UK fights to keep its name

Date: Thursday, June 8, 2023 | Author: James Dallas

Bassadone Automotive Group, the parent company of Ssangyong Motors UK, is fighting to retain the Ssangyong name for the vehicles it imports to the UK, which include the Musso pick-up truck.

Following its takeover by the KG Group in August 2022, the Korean manufacturer Ssangyong Motor Group confirmed it would rebrand as KG Mobility in its domestic market this year.

Ssangyong Motors UK, however, alongside other European importers, wants to stick with the Ssangyong name it has been marketing the brand under since 2011.

“We would like to stay with it,” Ssangyong Motors UK’s managing director Kevin Griffin told What Van?

“All of Europe is fighting against it [the re-brand], it takes a long time to establish a name.”

Griffin added that in the UK the term ‘mobility’ was likely to be confused with Motability, the well-established charitable scheme that provides vehicles for disabled people.

Aside from the potential name change, Griffin stressed the Korean manufacturer’s change of ownership had had no impact on the UK importership.

“The contract rolled over from Ssangyong to KG,” he said. “We are owned solely by Bassadone.”

Griffin said the Musso pick-up is currently the best-selling vehicle in Ssangyong UK’s range, which also includes the Rexton, Korando and Tivoli passenger cars.

Griffin expects to sell 1,500 Mussos in the UK in 2023 and claimed this number would be higher were it not restricted by government emissions regulations on imported ICE vehicles.

The anticipated introduction of an electric pick-up truck in 2025 should help to get around this obstacle, although the electric truck under development is currently two-wheel drive only.

“Four-wheel drive destroys battery life,” admitted Griffin.

The vast majority of Musso sales in the UK go through the dealer network to retail customers, with fleets accounting for just 3% of volume, Griffin said.

Ssangyong UK currently operates 70 dealerships and has a target of reaching 80 by the end of the year.

Griffin insisted Ssangyong UK would not switch to the agency model being adopted by some brands, whereby dealers act solely as intermediaries, enabling demonstrations and handing over vehicles to customers but not participating in the sales transaction, which is conducted directly with the manufacturer online.

“It’s not a route we’ll go down, we will still have people in showrooms you can talk to,” he said.

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