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| Rodrigo Gonzalez, left, the managing director of SsangYong Motor Chile SpA, and Mauricio Pascual, the commercial manager of SsangYong Motor Chile SpA, pose at SsangYong Motor's office in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul |
Korean SUV maker to release Torres in Chile in November
By Baek Byung-yeul
With SsangYong Motor's new SUV, the Torres, set to make its debut in Korea in July, officials from the SUV maker's Chilean distributor said Wednesday that they are confident the SUV would be a huge hit in the South American country thanks to its bold exterior and high-tech interior.
"When you see a car in person, some cars are different from what you saw in the pictures, and it can seem deceptive because it looked very nice in the pictures but not in person. But in this case (for the Torres), the pictures looked really nice and the car was much nicer when I saw it in person," Rodrigo Gonzalez, the managing director of SsangYong Motor Chile SpA, told The Korea Times during an interview at SsangYong's office in Seoul.
"We are very, very confident of the success of the Torres in the (Chilean) market," he added.
The managing director visited Korea with Mauricio Pascual, the commercial manager of SsangYong Motor Chile SpA, the distribution company for SsangYong's SUVs in Chile, to test drive the Torres, which will hit the Chilean market in November.
SsangYong has generated most of its sales in Korea, but the SUV-specialized brand is also gaining popularity in the South American country, where SUVs account for around 70 percent of the entire car market, because much of its landscape consists of mountains.
The new SUV, which will first be released here this month and then in international markets from November, has already been gaining substantial popularity here, as it has garnered more than 25,000 preorders.
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| SsangYong Motor's upcoming SUV, the Torres / Courtesy of SsangYong Motor |
The officials from the Chilean distributor said that the new SUV has many points of appeal for Chilean customers, saying that the Torres was named after Torres del Paine National Park, which lies between the Andes Mountains and the Patagonian Steppe in southern Chile, and SsangYong has established a good reputation there.
Gonzalez added that the Chilean distributor suggested SsangYong to name the new car "Torres." The new SUV will be the sixth SUV in SsangYong's lineup in Chile, following the Musso Grand (selling as the Rexton Sports Khan in Korea), the Musso (known as the Rexton Sports here), the Rexton, the Korando and the Tivoli.
"We suggested the name, 'Torres,' because it is a very renowned place in Chile. It has a unique landscape. We suggested the name because we thought SsangYong currently has a very good lineup that can be good for both outdoor activities and daily driving for working," Gonzalez said.
"In our country, SsangYong has a very good reputation, as the brand has been present in the market for over 20 years, and there are a lot of happy customers because their ownership experience has been very positive," he added.
When comparing the Torres to its Korean rivals, the Tucson and the Sportage, made by Hyundai Motor and Kia, respectively, Pascual presumed that Chilean customers would choose the Torres.
"The Torres is for more off-road driving. Compared to the Tucson and the Sportage, they have similar levels of technology and design, but in terms of off-road driving, the Torres will be better for outdoor activities," the commercial manager said.
Data also showed that SsangYong's sales in Chile are comparable to those of Hyundai Motor and Kia. In 2021, SsangYong sold 6,415 SUVs and pickups while Hyundai Motor sold 7,460 and Kia sold 6,245 in the same segments. SsangYong expects its sales in 2022 will reach around 7,000.
"Chile's annual car sales are around 400,000 units. It is a very tough market because the country offers tariff-free benefits to all countries that produce cars. More than 60 brands are competing for the SUV market there and Chinese brands, which are selling cars at around 30 percent cheaper than us, are dominating the compact SUV market. So we are trying to offer more values that the Chinese brands cannot provide," Oliver Chang, the general manager of the Asia Pacific South America Team at SsangYong, said.
