Samsung Motors

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Samsung Motors Inc. (SMI for short) was a South Korean automobile manufacturer based in Busan and a subsidiary of Samsung . The majority of the company was sold to Renault in 2000 and has been trading as Renault Samsung Motors ever since .

history

Even before founding SMI, Samsung was considering taking over Shinjin Motors in 1976 . In 1984 a joint venture was negotiated with Chrysler . However, under pressure from the government, these talks were broken off. In the following years the group approached automobile manufacturers several times to discuss technical cooperation: Fiat and Volkswagen (1987), Honda (1989), BMW (1992) and Peugeot (1993). In 1990 and 1994, Samsung signed a technical licensing agreement with Nissan-Diesel and Nissan, respectively . In 1994, the Samsung SEV-III concept vehicle manufactured by Samsung Heavy Industries was presented. The commercial vehicle production started by Samsung Heavy Industries was spun off in 1996 to the company Samsung Commercial Vehicles (SCV). Both subsidiaries - SCV and SMI - formed the Samsung Automotive Subgroup from 1997 .

Competitive imitation (of the competing Hyundai Group ), the search for legitimacy and, on an economic level, the interest in diversification and possible synergy effects are cited as reasons for this step towards automobile production . There is also a number of anecdotal aspects.

The company Samsung Motors Inc. was founded 1995th

The production was elaborately prepared. More than 1,300 assembly line workers and engineers from SMI and its 90 Korean suppliers were sent to Nissan Japanese plants for training in 1995. In addition, employees and suppliers at the Busan plant were trained by 200 engineers and technicians. Samsung Motors also opened offices in Detroit , Tokyo and Frankfurt , and in 1995 Samsung Design America, Inc. was founded as a design center. The specially introduced Samsung Motors Card had around 3.5 million holders who were to be given discounts in participating stores.

The start of production, however, coincided with the Asian crisis . The first vehicles were delivered in March 1998. In the first year, SMI only sold 45,000 units, mostly to Samsung employees. Originally 80,000 vehicles were targeted. The loss for the first two quarters totaled $ 192 million.

In March 1998 a cooperation with Ford was discussed. When Samsung got out of negotiations to take over Kia in October 1998 , this set the trend for the further history of the company.

Initially, a takeover by Daewoo was planned. This failed despite the declaration of intent that had already been signed due to financial issues. In addition, Daewoo should continue the loss-making production of the SM5 model for five (instead of the already promised two) years.

In June 1999, SMI filed for bankruptcy.

About two-thirds of SMI's liabilities of US $ 3.7 billion were borne by the CEO, with the rest of the other Samsung subsidiaries taking over.

Renault also signed a letter of intent. The company was considered a preferred partner because of its recently concluded alliance with Nissan . It eventually acquired a 70% interest in the company for an amount of $ 562 million. Renault Samsung Motors was founded in September 2000 . Renault's entry is seen as the beginning of the true globalization of the South Korean automotive industry.

Models

The only model produced was the Samsung SM5 , based on the Nissan Maxima A32 , which was offered with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and a 2.5-liter V6 engine. In some countries the models were also called SQ5 . The model was exported to Peru, Chile, Panama, China, Lebanon and Egypt.

Production figures of 41,593 (for 1998) and 6362 (for 1999) are given. During production, 27.5% of the parts were obtained from other Samsung subsidiaries.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jimmyn Parc: An eclectic approach to enhancing the competitive advantage of nations: analyzing the success factors of East Asian economies with a focus on the development o. In: theses.fr. June 17, 2014, accessed April 6, 2018 (French).
  2. ^ Leslie R. Rudnick, Ronald L. Shubkin: Synthetic Lubricants And High-Performance Functional Fluids , Boca Raton 1999.
  3. ↑ a b c Annual Report 1996. The Spirit of Competition. In: samsung.com. Retrieved August 11, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Hisayuki Yoshimoto: Reliability Examination in Horizontal-Merger Price Simulations: An Ex-Post Evaluation of the Gap between Predicted and Observed Prices in the 1998 Hyundai-Kia Merger. In: University of Glasgow. January 29, 2012, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b SAMSUNG Motors Begins Delivery of its First Cars. In: samsung.com. March 5, 1998, accessed August 10, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b c Oles Gadacz: Daewoo to swallow Samsung Auto Unit. In: autonews.com. December 14, 1998, accessed August 11, 2018 .
  7. ↑ SAMSUNG Motors and Ford Explore Ways to Cooperate. In: samsung.com. March 11, 1998, accessed August 10, 2018 .
  8. ^ The short, troubled life of Samsung Motors? In: wardsauto.com. January 1, 1999, accessed August 10, 2018 .
  9. ↑ SAMSUNG Motors Filees for Court Receivership, Unveils Plan to Retire Debt. In: samsung.com. June 30, 1999, accessed August 10, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Bae-Gyoon Park: Politics of Scale and the Globalization of the South Korean . In: Economic Geography . tape 79 , no. 2 , 2003, p. 173-194 , JSTOR : 30032923 (English).
  11. ↑ SAMSUNG's First Automobile Models Named as SM525V (2.5l) and SM520 (2.0l). In: samsung.com. February 4, 1998, accessed August 10, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Entrevista a Hernán Droppelmann, Gerente de Renault Samsung Motors. In: Diario La Estrategía. Retrieved August 12, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Tycho de Feijter: Spotted in China: Samsung SQ5V. In: carnewschina.com. May 23, 2016, accessed on August 10, 2018 .