Roewe SUV, spotted again, but will it ever launch?!
The Roewe SUV has been in development, or rather undergoing the gluing of a badge to its front end since early 2007. With the Roewe SUV being largely based on a Ssangyong Kyron as SAIC were a former major stake holder in Ssangyong, however it ended in tears with Ssangyong’s bankruptcy which forced SAIC out of the boardroom but not before Ssangyong accused SAIC of stealing tech, now it appears that Renault are interested in buying out Ssangyong.
The Roewe SUV has been spotted out yet again, this time apparently cold weather testing yet one more time, and the Chinese media are saying that it will be launched by the end of the year. Interestingly, the Roewe SUV has been heavily modified for the Chinese market, with it being lengthened by 10mm and widened by 8mm and has had a height increase of 10mm. The front grill has been reportedly dropped from the original Ssangyong design, and the Roewe 350 style grill will be adopted as the new face of Roewe, which we might see spread over to the Roewe 750 as well.
So maybe by the end of the year we might be able to report on the Roewe SUV rolling down the production lines, it has already gained government approval for production so it might be closer than we think. Previously MG-Rover attempted to turn the Ssangyong Rexton into an MG SUV during their dying days of attempting to rebrand other car companies cars as their own, thankfully this one never made it to the market.
Tweet This
Share on Facebook
Digg This
Save to delicious
Stumble it
RSS Feed
Renault is interested in Ssangyong because of forthcoming Korea-China FTA being eagerly pushed by Chinese government.
The FTA would give a free, duty-free, access to Chinese domestic auto market for Korea-based automakers, so that Renault could sell freely in China without complying with China’s JV requirement, so this FTA is attractive enough to make even a bankrupt dud like Ssangyong look sexy.
Pipe dream. Ssangyong can’t produce the diesel engines without the license of Benz and can’t design its own greabox either but instead import gearboxs from Austrilia based DSI which was purchased by Geely already.
The more important thing is the future FTA doesnt mean the duty free on imported vehicles to be sure.