Ssangyong Motor Co may plan to make India a manufacturing base in line with mirroring similar moves by other automakers. This move may be aimed at deriving the advantages of low-cost of production in India. As per reports the company also plans to invest over $1.2 billion over the next three to five years, which will help it roll out four new products and their variants. Ssangyong, which will plans to roll out its Rexton and Korando SUVs in India later this year, could move to manufacturing and exporting smaller compact and sub-compact SUVs being jointly developed with majority stakeholder Mahindra & Mahindra.
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M), India’s leading manufacturer of utility vehicles, earlier in 2011 had completed up a majority stake in SsangYong Motor Company (SYMC), the fourth largest Korean Automobile company. Mahindra had emerged as the preferred bidder for SsangYong -to acquire the bankruptcy-protected company in August 2010. The acquisition seemed to be the beginning of a new journey for SYMC and was also expected to enable Mahindra emerge as a strong force in the global passenger vehicle industry.
Earlier it has been that – M&M and Ssangyong have been jointly developing a sub-compact SUV, codenamed S101, which is expected to compete with the Indian hatchbacks with a 3-4 lakh. A similar product may be developed for being manufactured in India with a focus on the export market. It is learnt that M&M has been in touch with some suppliers for localization and sourcing of some key parts of Rexton and Korando SUVs, as well as S101.