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Renault Korea Motors
Summary
Renault Korea Motors (RKM) (르노코리아자동차), is a South Korean car manufacturer headquartered in Busan where its single assembly site is also located, with additional facilities at Seoul (administration), Giheung (research and development) and Daegu (vehicle testing).
The company was first established as Samsung Motors in 1994 by the chaebol Samsung, with technical assistance from Nissan. It started selling cars in 1998, just before South Korea was hit by the East Asian financial crisis. In 2000, it became a subsidiary of the French car manufacturer Renault, being renamed Renault Samsung Motors (RSM), although Samsung maintained a minority ownership. It adopted Renault Korea Motors as trade name in March 2022 and as its legal name in August. In December 2022, Geely acquired a minority ownership in the company through capital increase as part of wider partnership agreement with Renault, although it still is a consolidated subsidiary of the latter.
Renault Korea Motors markets a range of cars, including electric models and crossovers.
In the early 1990s, Samsung's Chairman Lee Kun-hee recognised the automotive industry as the culmination of several others. For the Samsung Group, this would allow to leverage resources and technologies from the entire group including Samsung Electrics and Samsung Electronics. He initially tried to take control of Kia, but competition from other bidders and legal restrictions led to him dropping the idea. Kia was eventually purchased by Hyundai.
Lee decided to create a new carmaker, Samsung Motors (also known as SMI) and a truck manufacturer, Samsung Commercial Vehicles Co., Ltd. (), the latter through Samsung Heavy Industries with Nissan Diesel's support. SMI was established in 1994 (incorporated in 1995) and Daegu-based Samsung Commercial Vehicles in 1996. Shortly after SMI started its operations, the Asian financial crisis hit. Samsung divested itself of SMI as well as other non-core subsidiaries. SMI was put up for sale, with Daewoo Motors being one of the first interested companies, but, as the crisis deepened, Daewoo Motors itself was bought by GM.
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