Renault's Korean plant produces more Nissans than Samsungs
- The Korean Samsung conglomerate decided to diversify into the automotive sector in the 1990s . In 1994, it signed an agreement with the Japanese OEM Nissan (at the time still independent) to manufacture Nissan cars under licence at its Busan site.
- Car production started at this site in 1998, a few months before the financial crisis that would impact all of Southeast Asia. This crisis seriously affected Samsung’s automotive activities, which went bankrupt and were bought by the French OEM Renault in 2000. The latter had just bought Nissan the previous year. As Samsung vehicles were re–badged Nissans, it was logical for the same manufacturer to acquire both Nissan and Samsung.
- Unfortunately, Samsung (SM3, SM5, SM7) did not have the anticipated success and production at the Busan plant (with a capacity of 300,000 vehicles per year) fell rapidly from 275,000 units in 2010 to 130,000 units in 2013.
- To save the plant, the Renault-Nissan group decided to produce Nissan Rogue cars at the Busan site. Production of this model, exported mainly to North America, began in 2014 and quickly became the most produced model in Busan, accounting for 57% of the plant's production in 2015, 56% in 2016 and 50% in 2018.
- Since 2015, the Busan plant has been producing more Nissans than Samsungs. The production of Renault badged models (Koléos) remains marginal (less than 10% of the plant's production). As for Samsung, despite the renewal of SM6,and QM6 models, sales have not improved. As a result, the future of the Samsung brand remains very uncertain.
Contact us: info@inovev.com