Renault Samsung’s new sales and marketing chief wants to bring back the good times and reckons his is the only car brand equipped to go head to head with the powerful Hyundai-Kia duo.
Park Dong-hoon said: “Renault Samsung was once the number two brand next to Hyundai-Kia. My goal is to revive its heyday and that’s also the reason why I moved to the company.”
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Park moved to Renault Samsung in August after heading up Volkswagen in South Korea. He added: “It may be difficult to lower car prices as much as Hyundai and Kia due to the economies of scale but, instead, we will focus on product quality and durability.”
While at VW the German brand’s annual sales in Korea jumped from 1,635 in 2005 to over 18,000 units.
Park said: “I did all I could at VW. I decided to move to Renault Samsung for a new challenge.”
He pledged to strengthen the carmaker’s diesel line-up to meet a growing trend.
“We have high expectations for the upcoming QM3 diesel,” he said. The compact SUV ? called the Renault Captur in Europe ? makes its Korea debut later this year.
The QM3 will be produced by Renault in Spain but Park hinted Samsung could consider production in Korea when sales are strong enough.
Following the announcement to produce Nissan’s new Rogue compact SUV at its Busan plant from next year, the sales chief made it clear that the company had no plan to import Renault-Nissan alliance models.
“Korean production of the new Rogue is aimed at increasing output capacity at the Busan plant. In order to gain more profits, we need to develop a new car through Renault Design Asia,” he said.
Park also pledged to strengthen marketing activities for the high-end SM7 while ramping up efforts for the full-electric SM3 Z.E.
