Korea’s RSM Not Bringing Spain-Built QM3 Output Home

Despite widespread predictions by analysts that Renault Samsung will begin producing its popular QM3 B-segment CUV in Korea, a spokesman says the automaker has no plans to produce the vehicle at its Busan, Korea, plant.

The spokesman tells WardsAuto RSM will continue to import the QM3 from Renault’s plant in Valladolid, Spain, where it is produced as the Renault Captur for other markets.

RSM’s CEO Park Dong-hoon confirms the company’s decision to continue importing the vehicle in a telephone interview with the Korea Herald.

In the interview, Park states “Producing the QM3 in the Spain plant has more price competitiveness…If the QM3 is produced in Korea, its price will be higher due to expensive labor costs.”

Park personally is credited with making the imported QM3 a stunning success during his tenure as vice president-sales from 2013 to April 1, when he became RSM’s first Korean CEO.

In April, Park cited the success of the QM3 as an example of his new strategy to take RSM into vehicle segments where there is more opportunity to compete against the huge rival brands of Hyundai and Kia.

Park says he is confident RSM will sell 100,000 units this year and either this year or next will become Korea’s No.3 automaker, outselling GM Korea and Ssangyong.

The Renault Samsung QM3 made its public debut in Korea at the 2013 Seoul International Auto Show, where it was voted “Best Car of the Show.”

When RSM began taking orders for the first batch of the Spanish-made vehicle in November 2013, it wrote up 1,000 orders in the first seven minutes, and 5,000 within the first two weeks.

The QM3 was credited with helping RSM increase domestic sales 33.3% to 80,003 in 2014. The new compact CUV’s 26,960 deliveries accounted for 22.7% of domestic sales.

Since its initial retail launch, the QM3 has racked up more than 46,000 sales.

In 2015 it sold 24,560 units, making it Korea’s best-selling imported vehicle and a leader in the compact CUV segment.

Korea Plant Underutilized  

Analysts have said shifting QM3 production to the Busan plant would be a natural next step following two years of sales success in Korea. The plant still is running below capacity, despite producing the Nissan Rogue on a high-volume contract basis for export to the U.S.

A hot seller among Korean consumers in their 20s and 30s, the QM3 was upgraded in April with youth-appealing high-tech features including an intelligent traction control system with road, soft-ground and expert driver settings, and a removable tablet-to-car navigation system developed jointly with SK Telecom.

The 1.5L dCi diesel engine mated to a Getrag DCT yields fuel efficiency of 52 mpg (4.5 L/100 km), according to RSM. The fuel economy is a big purchase driver; diesel fuel in Korea currently costs more than $4 per gallon.

The QM3 may have hit a speed bump when Korea’s Ministry of the Environment claimed in April the vehicle produces 17 times more nitrogen-oxide emissions in the driving cycle than when it is monitored under test-stand conditions.

At the time RSM said the emissions testing was done according to government regulations in a pre-established indoor environment and that it had fully complied with the regulations.

RSM said emissions from all vehicles under driving conditions are different than those formed and detected in the mandated indoor-test conditions. However, RSM said the QM3’s emissions in the driving cycle were seven times greater than in the test-stand situation, not 17 as the Ministry claimed.

RSM also said its emission levels in the driving cycle were less than those of any competing models and it was working to make improvements by year’s end.

The automaker says it doesn’t expect the Ministry’s report to curtail QM3 sales.