The KGM Motors UK dealer network is getting the brand’s first latest automotive that has been developed for the reason that South Korean industrial conglomerate KG Group acquired SsangYong in 2022, and the early signs are positive.
The Actyon SUV has been “completely crashed into the choices list and loaded” to supply immense value to UK consumers for its £36,995 price, in keeping with KGM UK sales director Clive Messenger, and it’s an ideal sign of a exciting future for the vehicle manufacturer.
“We have got a automotive that is the same as the most effective selling SUV within the UK (the Kia Sportage), and most significantly, the worth of our automotive goes to be significantly cheaper… We’re about £2,300 lower than the most effective selling vehicle on this class.”
The KGM Motors UK dealer network is getting the brand’s first latest automotive that has been developed for the reason that South Korean industrial conglomerate KG Group acquired SsangYong in 2022, and the early signs are positive.
The Actyon SUV has been “completely crashed into the choices list and loaded” to supply immense value to UK consumers for its £36,995 price, in keeping with KGM UK sales director Clive Messenger, and it’s an ideal sign of a exciting future for the vehicle manufacturer.
“We have got a automotive that is the same as the most effective selling SUV within the UK (the Kia Sportage), and most significantly, the worth of our automotive goes to be significantly cheaper… We’re about £2,300 lower than the most effective selling vehicle on this class.”
The rebrand of the franchised network from SsangYong to KGM was done in only 4 months last 12 months. Yet given the effort and time involved in establishing a brand new brand, particularly at a time when quite a few latest entrants from Asia are appearing, the corporate may be very open about its past – its website states KGM was formerly SsangYong and UK managing director Kevin Griffin says the dealers like their prospective buyers to know that the brand has been here for years.
“The tie up with SsangYong, keeping that there, has kept us out of the combination, because nearly all of people did recognise that SsangYong was South Korean. So keeping the KGM SsangYong turnaround in all of our adverts has kept us out of the Chinese brand fight.”
Griffin concedes that rebranding could have set back consumer awareness of the automotive manufacturer, which was already a distinct segment brand, hence the must be open and honest. The strategy makes much more sence provided that KGM dealerships can be retailing used SsangYong models for years to return yet.
The UK dealer network has been growing steadily since KGM’s takeover of SsangYong and it’s now at 73 sales points. In time Griffin (pictured) wants to extend this to 80 to get national coverage, filling some open points in North Wales, around Glasgow and within the South East of England.
He says the dealers coming to the brand are quite a combination now that KGM shouldn’t be so heavily focused on 4×4 capability, and particularly as corporations similar to Ford and Renault have been reducing their very own network scale.
Many just like the indisputable fact that KGM is sort of an easy setup, and the 35-strong team at its Swindon headquarters are easy to pay money for and willing to listen. In 2024, along with the annual conference and quarterly meetings, the KGM UK directors went on per week’s road trip doing regional meetings to permit all parties to share what needs to enhance quickly, what could change in the approaching months and what would take a 12 months or more to enhance.
More regional meetings can be arranged for franchise owners this April. “People don’t love to stay their head above the parapet when there’s 120 people at a conference, but while you’re in a room where there’s 20 or 30 that you already know since you’re all from the identical area you are glad to say ‘well I don’t love that’.
Griffin said the team has a level of comfort from seeing the investment being put into the automotive manufacturer by KG Group. They’re making progress, and Actyon is the primary full KG-developed automotive.
For the medium-term, KGM dealerships are being positioned to tap into more parts of the market. Alongside the Actyon launch next month, they’ve the primary full 12 months of supplies of the Torres EVX, the primary fully electric automotive from KGM and repriced below £40,000, plus an electrical pick-up truck, badged 0100, is on the way in which later this 12 months, and a KR10 SUV in 2026.
Hybrid-powered SUVs are across the corner too, as KGM’s strategic partnership with China’s BYD will expand to encompass plug-in hybrid and self-charging hybrid technology.
Korando, which was pulled out last 12 months in fear of overlap with Torres, can be reintroduced this 12 months on the request of the dealer network.
Responding to the suggestion that a network of former SsangYong dealers, who long specialised in diesel 4x4s, doesn’t sound like probably the most experienced with electric vchicles, Griffin counters that a number of the newer recruits bring learnings from representing other brands which have had EVs for several years. And he believes they’ve opportunities to point buyers towards the more cost-effective KGM Torres EVX in the event that they baulk at the associated fee of some mainstream brand EVs.
In any case, while greater than one million internal combustion engined latest cars get sold annually within the UK the team at KGM UK are confident their cars will find buyers.
KGM UK, which is an independent distributor owned by Gibraltar-based Bassedone Automotive Group moderately than an OEM’s subsidiary, has deliberately kept itself below the DfT’s small volume derogation threshold of two,500 cars and a pair of,500 LCVs to evade the ZEV Mandate threat of punative fines, and it’ll proceed to accomplish that in 2025.
“The challenge is that locks you right into a number, nevertheless it also gives us the chance to see what the market goes to go before we want to make a choice to push above those numbers,” says Griffin.
Sales director Clive Messenger adds that it can be crucial “to step away from the bloodbath” of the DfT’s mandate. Nevertheless, even inside this strategy KGM’s latest vehicle sales grew 10% in 2024, 19% in 2023 and 23% in 2022.
“We have been quietly getting on with things within the background and helping to grow organically our sales operation, through ourselves and thru our dealer partners, to make it a successful business within the UK,” Messenger adds.
The long-term ambition is to achieve a 1% market share, which might equate to around 20,000 annual latest vehicle sales, and that can be done “at a pleasant regular pace”, he said, moderately than throw away profit.
The proposition for KGM is to stay “slightly bit different” and good value for money in a market where so many brands are going mainstream or premium, in keeping with Clive Messenger, sales director, and the 8% drop in 2024’s retail market was a challenge given retail’s huge importance to KGM.
This Article First Appeared At www.am-online.com
