SsangYong Motor changes name to KG Mobility

KG Mobility's headquarters in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi. [YONHAP]

SsangYong Motor will get a fresh start as KG Mobility.

The Korean automaker finalized its first name change in 35 years at a shareholder meeting Wednesday.

"It's our first step to becoming a mobility company that focuses on future technologies including the development of an electric vehicle-dedicated platform and autonomous driving," KG Mobility said in a statement.

The change comes as a KG Mobility-led consortium in October acquired 62 percent of the beleaguered automaker.

KG Mobility also announced at the meeting that it will start a used car business in the second half.

The new business will sell secondhand KG Mobility cars under five years old with less than 100,000 kilometers (62,100 miles) on the odometer.

SsangYong began as Ha Dong-Hwan Motor Workshop in 1954. The company's name changed to Shinjin Motors in 1967 and Dong-A Motor in 1977. The name SsangYong Motor was first adopted in 1998.

The company was put under court receivership in April 2021 with Mahindra, SsangYong Motor's owner since 2011, failing to find new investors amid the Covid-19 pandemic and financial difficulties.

However, the automaker has had recent commercial success with its new Torres mid-size SUV, the company's first entirely new vehicle in four years. More than 30,000 Torres were sold in less than eight months since its introduction.

KG Mobility will unveil the Torres EVX, the electric version of Torres, at the Seoul Mobility Show 2023, the largest auto event in Korea, which is slated to begin on March 31 at the Kintex exhibition center in Goyang, Gyeonggi.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]