[THE INVESTOR] SsangYong Motor, the local unit of India’s Mahindra & Mahindra, officially launched its new sport utility vehicle Rexton Sports at a press conference on Jan. 9.

“We aim to sell 30,000 units a year in Korea,” SsangYong Motor President Choi Jong-sik said during the press conference. According to the company, it has already received 2,500 preorders for its new SUV model from Jan. 2-5.

The Rexton Sports shares its platform with the G4 Rexton SUV, a 2.2-liter diesel-powered flagship model launched last year.

Lee Seok-woo, a marketing manager at SsangYong Motor, said that the model mainly targets the domestic second car market, hoping to lure customers who buy vehicles to use during their leisure time. The company therefore focused on improving features such as towing capacity and driving efficiency for both on- and off-road travel.

Rexton Sports’ price ranges from 23.2 million (US$ 217,697.29) to 30.5 million won.

Furthermore, the company plans to boost its overseas sales, which dropped 29.2 percent on-year last year, with its new model. SsangYong Motor said that it aims to export the new SUV from March after introducing it at the Geneva Motor Show.

“Tivoli and G4 Rexton played a major role last year in regaining SsangYong Motor’s SUV specialist title. We will further solidify this status through the successfully launch of Rexton Sports and also expand our sales globally,” Choi said.

SsangYong Motor’s sales in Korea rose for the eighth consecutive year. The carmaker sold 100,677 cars here last year, mainly due to the popularity of the Tivoli compact SUV and G4 Rexton large SUV.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)