Renault Samsung Motors Corporation announced it has changed its name to Renault Korea Motors, ahead of the August expiry of a 22 year agreement to use the Samsung brand.
Renault’s South Korean unit said the name change in practice would be effective immediately while procedures to officially change the corporate name would likely take a few months.
Samsung Group established Samsung Motors in 1994 but Renault acquired a majority stake in the company in 2000 in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis and currently holds an 80% stake in the automaker which has a plant in Busan with production capacity of around 300,000 units per year.
The company reported an 84% jump in global sales in the first two months of 2022 to 24,827 vehicles from depressed year earlier sales of 13,496 units, as it stepped up shipments of the XM3 and QM6 SUVs to Europe.