KG Mobility focuses on electric vehicle platform, self-driving tech

South Korea's KG Mobility (formerly Ssangyong Motor Co.) says it will actively target not only Europe and the US but also niche markets in emerging economies of Asia, the Middle East and South America.

The carmaker also unveiled a blueprint targeting the future mobility market by focusing on electrification, self-driving and development of software technologies.

"I think it's important to not only dig deep in one market but also sell to multiple countries," KG Mobility Chairman Kwak Jea-sun on Tuesday said at "Vision Tech Day" held at the Korea International Exhibition Center aka KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. "We will target a wide market through diversified ways to match our company's capabilities."

Localization customized by country is the core of KG Mobility’s sales strategy. Because the company's brand awareness is not yet high, the goal is to promote exports in semi- or fully assembled form.

"We will try a variety of things if the cars we develop sell well in each country," Kwak added. "We will use a localization strategy to customize marketing by country."

KG Mobility also released a mid- to long-term business roadmap concentrated on electrification. It will use a dedicated platform to develop all of its electric vehicles (EV) including the large sport-utility vehicle F100.

"The core of the EV platform is high-voltage battery technology," KG Mobility Managing Director Jeong Jae-wook said. "The recently unveiled EV Torres EVX is the nation's first to apply cell-to-pack technology to lower the risk of battery fire."

To reduce a vehicle's weight and raise efficiency of the interior, the company will also apply cell-to-body technology.

KG Mobility is also targeting the growing market for EVs using software-defined vehicle technology. For this, it will develop an integrated software platform, application and cloud system.

The company also formed a unit to develop high-speed and over-the-air communication within a vehicle.

Another objective is securing advanced self-driving technology. The goal is to develop this know-how starting with Level 3, in which a system controls a vehicle on a highway, and eventually reaching Level 4 or higher by 2030 to enable fully hands-free navigation.

Write to Sungsu Bae at baebae@hankyung.com