Tivoli Air Giving Embattled Ssangyong Breathing Room

Struggling Korean automaker Ssangyong has a hit on its hands with the Tivoli Air longbody CUV.

The subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra had set a domestic sales target of 10,000 units this year when it began taking domestic orders March 8. Ssangyong announced a month later it had 5,100 non-binding customer orders pending for the CUV.

A spokesman tells WardsAuto between March 8 and April 8 Ssangyong had actual domestic sales of 1,439 units, with another 1,149 in export markets, for total global deliveries of 2,588 vehicles. The 5,100 figure reflects the Korean news media’s descriptions of the pre-orders as sales on a “contract basis,” which apparently is causing the number of orders to be confused with actual deliveries.

Ssangyong nevertheless is sticking with its 10,000-unit domestic-sales target for the Tivoli Air in 2016.

For the first quarter, 17,354 units of all versions of the Tivoli, including the Tivoli Air (XLV and XLV Air in export markets) were sold globally, a 23.3% increase over 9,826 in like-2015. The Tivoli brand accounted for 48.4% of the automaker’s 33,666 worldwide sales in the first quarter.

Global sales for all Ssangyong models were up nearly 6% from 32,765 deliveries in first-quarter 2015.

CEO Choi Jang Sik says this week Tivoli models accounted for about 64,000 units (about 56%) of the 144,764 vehicles Ssangyong sold globally in 2015.

A spokesman says the official global sales target for all Tivoli models in 2016 is 95,000, although Choi indicates deliveries could reach 100,000. Both goals may be a stretch; WardsAuto data shows domestic light-truck deliveries (sales of Ssangyong cars are negligible) rose 7.1% in February from year-ago, or nearly 84,000 spread over 12 months.

The Tivoli regular-body vehicle is selling in Korea is priced at between 16,060 won and 22,730 won ($14,000-$20,000). The Tivoli Air version stickers for between 19,490 won and 24,490 won ($17,000-$21,000).