Ssangyong releases teaser renderings of its Tivoli Air, the global name for its new long-body compact SUV.
A spokesman notes the new name is meant to reference “an essential life element.” Nobody can dispute the Tivoli has resuscitated the troubled Korean affiliate of Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra.
The Tivoli played a major role in hiking Ssangyong’s 2015 domestic sales 44.4% to 96,664 vehicles, the highest in 12 years. The SUV itself accounted for 45,021 deliveries, or 46% of the total. Another 18,672 units were sold overseas.
Tivoli’s success in Korea helped Ssangyong realize a global sales increase of 2.6%, with 144,764 vehicles sold, while limiting export-sales losses to 37.4% with 45,100 global deliveries. Export sales in 2014 had tumbled 44%, largely reflecting the loss of once-booming sales to Russia.
If not for the introduction of the Tivoli in Europe, analysts believe, the export figures would have continued their downward spiral. Instead, after the Tivoli’s November 2015 launch in the region, sales in traditional markets rose 80%.
Ssangyong looks to the Tivoli Air to sell well in all markets in that it provides more luggage space and interior room than the sedan versions. A conceptual preproduction version was shown in November at the Frankfurt auto show as the XLV-Air.
The Tivoli’s success has come in stages, first with the January 2015 introduction of its domestic gasoline-engine version, followed by the launches of diesel models in Korea and Europe in July and November, respectively. The ʼ16 Tivoli Air long-body goes on sale in March.
The evolution of the Tivoli lineup will continue. Ssangyong recently displayed and road-tested the Tivoli EVR, powered by a 25kW lithium-polymer battery.
A spokesman says the EVR has a battery-only range of 62 miles (100 km) and a range of 248 miles (400 km) with an on-board range-extender engine. Production is to begin before 2019.
