Going Rogue Paid Off for Renault Samsung in 2016

Renault Samsung this year will launch two imported vehicles it hopes will significantly boost sales in its home market.

Korea’s No.3 automaker finished 2016 with global sales of 257,345 vehicles, up 12% year-on-year, thanks to the introduction of the homegrown QM6 midsize SUV, and contract production of the Nissan Rogue compact CUV for export to the U.S. and Canada in an arrangement with the Renault Nissan Alliance.

The Busan plant, Renault Samsung’s only vehicle-assembly facility, is operating close to its full design capacity of 300,000 vehicles.

When the automaker began producing the Rogue at Busan in August 2014, the annual sales target was announced as 80,000 vehicles. In 2016 alone Renault Samsung exported 136,309 units of the Rogue to North America, up 16% from the prior year. That comprised the bulk of the automaker’s 146,244 vehicles sold abroad.

While domestic and export sales of many Renault Samsung models fell sharply in 2016, two new entries more than offset those other models’ Korean results.

The QM6, designed and developed over 42 months at the automaker’s technical center in Yongin, sold 14,126 units in the three months following its early September launch. The technical center is the only Renault Group facility that can fully design and develop vehicles.

The Korean SM6 modified version of the Renault Talisman, which launched in January in Korea, sold 57,478 units for the full year. It and the QM6 helped domestic Renault Samsung deliveries jump 39% from like-2015.

Domestic sales for 2016 totaled 111,101, including 15,301 units of the QM3, the Korean-badged version of the Renault Captur subcompact CUV that is imported from Renault’s Valladolid, Spain, plant.

The spokesman does not confirm reports Renault Samsung is developing a second compact SUV for the Renault Nissan Alliance that would be targeted against Korean rival Ssangyong’s Tivoli portfolio.

Renault Samsung hopes to build on its domestic gains by launching two new imports produced at Renault plants in other nations.