April 27, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] SsangYong Motor, owned by Indian auto giant Mahindra & Mahindra, on June 28 said it is planning to begin producing a new pickup truck, codenamed Q200, starting as early as December.

“We are planning to unveil the pickup in the second half of this year or next year,” Song Seung-ki, managing director of the production headquarters, told reporters after a tour of the automaker’s production plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. 

The new 1-ton pickup truck is widely speculated to replace the Korando Sports truck. But the carmaker said the two cars will be different, adding that the Q200 will be larger than the current Korando Sports, and similar to the size of SsangYong’s large SUV G4 Rexton.

SsangYong plans to inject some 30 billion won (US$26.20 million) to expand the facility to build the new Q200 at the Pyeongtaek Plant’s Assembly Shop Line 3, where it currently rolls out G4 Rexton large SUV and Korando Sports.

Earlier this year, the carmaker also announced plans to assemble and produce Q200 in Saudi Arabia from 2020, in cooperation with Saudi National Automobiles Manufacturing Co.

More new car releases are on the calendar for SsangYong. The carmaker plans to release the facelifted version of its popular Tivoli compact sedan in 2019. Korando C replacement, codenamed C300, will also be unveiled in the first half of 2019.

By 2020, the carmaker plans to roll out an EV that runs 300 kilometers on a single charge.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)