South Korean steel and chemical conglomerate KG Group has reconfirmed its intention to rebrand its recent acquisition, SsangYong Motor, as KG Mobility.
The Korea Herald reports that KG Group and SsangYong Motor chairperson Kwak Jae-Sun reconfirmed this at an event held in December by the Korea Automobile Journalists association.
Plans to rename SsangYong Motor were first made known in September 2022, when Kwak Jae-Sun became chair of the car manufacturing company according to the New Daily Publication in Korea.
The name change will have to be approved at the general shareholders meeting in March.
Kwak says the 35-year-old SsangYong Motor name has a fandom and good memories, but it also has a painful image.
He admitted that changing the name of the company was a difficult decision but says there is a need for a complete overhaul, including the brand logo and corporate identity.
The Korea Herald says SsangYong Motor is the country’s oldest car manufacturer, and it first began trading as the Ha Dong-Hwan Motor workshop in 1954. Then it used the names of Shinjin Motor and Dong-A Motor between 1967 and 1986.
It became SsangYong Motor when the now-defunct SsangYong Group acquired it in 1986.
According to the Korea Herald, SsangYong Motor has had four different owners: Daewoo Group, creditors, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC-Motor) and India’s Mahindra & Mahindra.
It says KG Group’s takeover of SsangYong Motor helped complete its court-ordered corporate rehabilitation process that began in December 2020.
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