Ssangyong Readies Tivoli Air Assault on China Market

Playing to one of its few strengths, Korean automaker Ssangyong prepares to bring its Tivoli Air long-body CUV to the booming Chinese market.

After its successful late-March debut in Korea and some foreign markets, Ssangyong will launch the long-body Tivoli Air following its China debut at the Beijing Motor Show which opens April 25.

 “It will be marketed in China as the XLV Air, which is the universal name for the vehicle outside of Korea,” a spokesman tells WardsAuto.

Noting China’s CUV segment is extremely robust, the spokesman nevertheless says, “Sales figures for China have not yet been defined.”

The XLV and XLV Air models of the vehicle will not be significantly altered for the China market, he adds.

They will be distributed through Pang Da Automobile and Trade, which represents a wide range of foreign brands and covers virtually all of China.

In Korea the Tivoli is saving Ssangyong and lifting it out of a sea of red ink.

In addition to more than 5,000 customer orders for the Tivoli Air, the subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra has well over 6,000 orders for the regular version of the Tivoli pending, a backlog of nearly 12,000 orders.

The automaker has not increased its 95,000-unit global sales target, despite the strong demand.

The Tivoli by far was the best-selling CUV in the Korean domestic market last year. It sold 45,021 units, nearly double Renault Samsung’s QM3, which recorded 24,560 deliveries, and nearly four times the 12,727 sales of GM Korea’s Trax.

The Tivoli accounted for roughly 64,000 of Ssangyong’s global sales of 144,764 vehicles in 2015. Of the 64,000 Tivoli units, 45,000 were sold in Korea and nearly 19,000 were exported. The export figures included some completely knocked-down kits.