Sales of Tivoli and Rexton Brands Strong
SsangYong Motor Co., part of Mahindra Group of India, announced on Jan. 2 that it sold a total of 143,309 vehicles in 2018 – 109,140 units in domestic sales and 34,169 in exports including CKD kits.
In 2018, SsangYong showed a similar sales performance to 2017, recording a growth for nine consecutive years in the domestic market helped by strong sales of the Tivoli brand and successful launch of the Rexton Sports.
In the domestic market, the Rexton Sports, launched in January 2018, sold over 42,000 units and recorded the best sales during the first year of launch among all of the company’s pick-up styled Sports brands in its history. It helped the company post the best domestic sales in 15 years since 2003 when it sold 129,078 vehicles.
The company arranged the working system to daytime consecutive shifts in October 2018 and this allowed additional production volume of the Rexton Sports. Its 2018 sales were up 83.4 percent compared to 2017, leading the company’s sales growth. The Tivoli brand also secured competitiveness in the B-segment SUV market by exceeding sales of 43,000 units.
As a result, SsangYong achieved the No. 3 position in the domestic auto industry by growing for the ninth consecutive year.
In contrast, SsangYong’s 2018 exports were down 7.7 percent over 2017 due to the downturn in the overall global market, even though the company pushed to expand its markets aggressively by launching the Rexton Sports in more countries including Australia where the company established its first-ever overseas sales affiliate.
However, the company expects a gradual recovery as the G4 Rexton has been receiving favorable reviews from many foreign markets including India where the vehicle (local name: Alturas G4) won Premium SUV of the Year recently from a leading automotive publication, and the additional Rexton Sports brand model is launching soon.
In December 2018, the company recorded the best monthly sales of 2018 both at home and abroad with an increase of 1.8 percent over December 2017 helped by the best monthly sales of the Tivoli brand and Rexton brand vehicles as well.
Choi Johng-sik, CEO of SsangYong Motor, commented, “We successfully achieved a growth for the ninth straight year in the domestic market thanks to the popularity of the Tivoli brand and successful launch of the Rexton Sports,” adding, “We will try to record the best-ever yearly sales in 2019 based on the successful launch of the code name C300 model as well as the long-bodied Rexton Sports.”