Wrangler at heart of South Korea’s new XAV sport utility vehicle

BY TYREL LINKHORN
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER

image: http://www.toledoblade.com/image/2015/06/05/300x_b1_z/07b1xav-4.jpg

Autocar magazine said Ssangyong Motor’s concept SUV, the XAV, has a splash of the Toledo-built Wrangler.
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A South Korean automaker may have eyes on the U.S. market for a new four-by-four to compete with the one-of-a-kind Jeep Wrangler, though industry experts say Jeep has little reason to worry.

Ssangyong Motor Co. has been around for more than 60 years and sells a range of sport utility vehicles and crossovers throughout Asia and Europe. The company has never been in North America, though it seems as if it plans to change that.

The English magazine Autocar recently reported that officials with Ssangyong are looking to develop a Wranglerlike SUV to be exported to the United States.

“Ssangyong is effectively Korea’s answer to Land Rover and Jeep,” Autocar quoted a spokesman as saying. “We need to make better use of the power of our brand.”

The Blade received no reply in contacting Ssangyong’s media relations team.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles builds all of its Jeep Wranglers in Toledo.

Launching a new brand in the United States is tremendously expensive, and Ssangyong is a relatively small company without any established partnerships here.

Experts call the the prospect a long shot.

Jessica Caldwell, an analyst with Edmunds.com, said plenty of car companies talk about selling vehicles in the United States, but few successfully make the jump.

“How long have we been hearing about a Chinese manufacturer coming to the U.S.”? Ms. Caldwell asked. “That hasn’t happened. It’s definitely a challenge.”

Ssangyong may have a vehicle in mind, though. The company unveiled a boxy off-road ready concept called the XAV this year at the Seoul Motor Show. Autocar theorized that concept could be the base for the company’s U.S. aspirations, though the XAV looks much more like the discontinued Toyota FJ Cruiser than it does a Jeep Wrangler.

Ssangyong officials say they believe the splash of a Jeep Wrangler competitor could help them clear the significant financial hurdles they’d face.

“A Wrangler-style, high-design 4x4 could create the waves we’d need in order to make a mark over there,” Autocar quoted a spokesman as saying. “At the same time, it’d work really well for us in the U.K. and Europe at a time when building profile is absolutely key.”

Though Ssangyong hasn’t sold vehicles in the United States, it does have a connection to Jeep.

In 1974, Ssangyong partnered with Shinjin Motor Co., another South Korean automaker, to build licensed copies of the Wrangler predecessors CJ-5 and later CJ-7. The Korean-produced CJ-7s were sold into the 1990s.

Here in the United States, the CJ line gave way to the Wrangler in 1986. And though the market has shifted away from traditional trucklike SUVs in favor of car-based crossovers, the Wrangler has seemingly become stronger.

Jeep Wrangler sales set a record last year and the vehicle is on pace to top that this year. Just last month, Fiat Chrysler said it sold more than 22,000 Wranglers — easily its best month ever.

So it would make some sense that someone would want to capitalize on that success, but Ms. Caldwell said Jeep has something that no one can duplicate — history.

“I think there’s not necessarily a competitor because it’s hard to get that heritage,” Ms. Calwell said.

Contact Tyrel Linkhorn at tlinkhorn@theblade.com or 419-724-6134 or on Twitter @BladeAutoWriter.

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