Sport utility vehicles accounted for 94 percent of Renault Samsung Motors Corp's exports so far this year, with potential for more growth down the line, the company said Thursday.
Of 53,904 units shipped by the South Korean unit of French carmaker Renault S.A. in the January-April period, 94.1 percent, or 50,791 units, were SUVs, the company said. The Nissan Rogue accounted for 72.3 percent of the exports and the QM6 for 21.9 percent.
QM6 from Renault Samsung(Yonhap)
Exports of mid-sized sedans SM6 stopped at 5 percent.
The Nissan Rogue is built under cooperation between Renault Group affiliates, Renault Samsung and Nissan. They have been assembled at Renault Samsung's factory in South Korea's southeastern city of Busan from September 2014 onwards with vehicles exported overseas. The factory produced approximately 130,000 units of the Nissan Rogue last year, and company officials say they expect to match the volume this year at minimum.
The company said it was able to secure the production volume for the Nissan Rogue based on its quality work on the QM5 at the Busan plant.
Renault Samsung had been put in charge of developing high-end SUVs, and the QM6 was the first lineup whose development and production were fully relegated to the company.
Officials said the company's SUV exports may increase as shipments of the QM6 to Europe, that started last month, start to pick up pace. The mid-sized SUV was launched last year in South America, the Middle East and Australia, and this year's exports are expected to reach 40,000 units to some 80 countries. Shipments to Europe are set at 30,000 units.
Exports of mid-sized sedans will not change much as demand is mostly limited to Europe, officials said. (Yonhap)