SsangYong survived repeated bankruptcies, then changed its name
Few carmakers have changed hands as often as South Korea's SsangYong. Its owners included a chaebol, Daewoo, China's SAIC and India's Mahindra, and it went into receivership twice. In 2023 its new owner dropped the name entirely to shed what its chairman called a painful image. It is now KG Mobility.
The company traces its roots to a motor workshop founded by Ha Dong-hwan in 1954, which merged with another firm in 1963 and from 1964 built jeeps for the US Army along with trucks and buses. After the SsangYong business group took over, the company took its name in 1988, having bought the British specialist carmaker Panther Westwinds a year earlier. A 1991 technology deal with Daimler-Benz let it build SUVs using Mercedes engineering, and Daimler parts and designs turned up in many later models.
Then came the turbulence. Daewoo Motors bought control in 1997 but sold again in 2000 amid its own financial crisis. China's SAIC took 51% in late 2004, and workers struck for seven weeks in 2006 over planned layoffs. In January 2009, after a loss of $75.42 million, the company entered receivership, and a plan to cut a third of the workforce sparked a factory occupation. Mahindra & Mahindra was picked as preferred buyer in 2010. Its first new model under Indian ownership, the Tivoli, helped deliver the first net profit in nine years.
The recovery did not last. When Mahindra cut funding in December 2020, SsangYong filed for receivership again, owing 315.3 billion won in overdue debt. A deal with electric bus maker Edison Motors was reported in 2021, but in June 2022 the Seoul Bankruptcy Court chose a consortium led by KG Group, which planned to pay 900 billion won, and receivership ended that November.
The rename followed in March 2023, with KG as the new marque. The company still concentrates on SUVs and crossovers, is shifting toward electric cars, and signed with China's BYD to co-develop batteries for its first electric model. A commercial arm builds vehicles including electric buses.
Source: KG Mobility
