The electric flagship of the first car from a re-energised Korean battler brand goes big on spec and space, but will it re-set the bar?

‘KING-sized Gear Mover’, ‘ Korean Glamour Model’, ‘Korean Grade Mechanicals’ and, inevitably, ‘Kiwi Great Motoring.’

Reincarnation of what we’ve known as Ssangyong into what we’ll get to call it from now on, KGM, brings plenty of word play marketing opportunity.

KG-who? It’s an industry (petrol-chemicals, steel) and media chaebol that’s become the sixth owner of SsangYong, with resolve to bringing a settled and prosperous future to what has been a highly embattled SUV specialist brand. The cars fall into a new automotive division - the ‘M’ stands for ‘motor’ - that’s kept on all the Ssangyong car people and maintained the design centre operations in Seoul, assembly factory in Pyeongtaek and engine plant in Changwon.

Occasion of a marque well-known to Kiwis having adopted a new name allows the fresh distributor - that’s Inchcape, which has long had Subaru here and also recently added China’s LDV - to decide on a brand relaunch.

Ssangyong was always a bit straight-laced, whereas KGM? Even though some of the old fare is carried over, with a lot of new stuff coming, it’s far more committed to fun and funky.

Heard of ‘hallyu’? It’s the ‘Korean wave’; basically the elements of the country’s modern hip culture.

From music to movies, technology to food, the world has fallen in love with a Seoul vibe which first came to international attention with one of the most potent cultural movements of the 21st century, the phenomenon of K-pop.

That brash to edgy feel also now resonates in the massively successful ‘Squid Game’ television show and the Oscar-winning movie ‘Parasite’.

KGM NZ effort is all about linking all that Special K cool to Torres, which though started by SsangYong before it went into administration, still validly stands as the first all-new model launched under KG’s fresh ownership and spirit.

This five-seater medium sports utility is presenting here in 152kW/280Nm 1.5-litre petrol (above) in front and four-wheel drive formats, at $49,990 and $54,990 respectively - the first releasing in a couple of weeks, the second in May - and, with a full electric, also now on the ground.

The EV (called EVX, for ‘electric vehicle ‘eXperience’) pictured at the top of this story has a 159kW/339Nm single motor, 73.4kWh usable battery and 462km WLTP range. At $67,990, it holds a fat premium over the petrols, but is still the lowest-priced Korean electric car here.

More editions are coming; a hybrid in mid-2025 that conceivably will ultimately supplant the pure petrol and a four-wheel-drive EVX light tray deck, with dual motors and a bigger battery, out by end of this year.

Distinctive, disruptive, desirable: KGM NZ head of brand marketing Daile Stephens proposes these as core, and Torres adheres strongly.

As a 4700mm-long family SUV that sits roughly between the Korando and Rexton, which both remain on sale until fully KGM-engineered replacements arrive, this is not a small car, but even then goes above the norm for spaciousness. It offers excellent amounts of cabin space - including a huge boot, though estimate of 800 litres’ capacity seems to come from measuring to the roof lining, rather than the window line - and good room for occupants, plus generous equipment.

The entry car, simply called Torres, comes with 18-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels, full-LED headlights, keyless entry, front and rear parking sensors, and a pair of 12.3-inch screens, one for the main instruments and the other acting as an infotainment display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, dual-zone air-con and cruise control.

The four wheel drive and EVX present with 20-inch wheels, adds power adjustment on the front seats, heating and ventilation in the front and rear seats, swaps the ‘vegan’ (meaning vinyl) leather for actual cow-born upholstery, gets adaptive cruise control and a 360-degree camera system. Plus it picks up a Tesla trick of allowing air con to operate in pet-safe mode when humans are absent.

All can tow up to 1500kg braked and 500kg unbraked and the EVX is among a handful of electrics with vehicle to load capability and the only one on the market in which the handset for this is provided as a standard item, though it’s a one-way car to appliance feed.

On the other hand, it stands with the Tesla Model Y and Mustang Mach-E as delivering without a home charging cable. KGM would prefer you buy into an EVnex wall charger, for around $2600, assuming your home’s wiring is okay.

Although even the four-wheel-drive isn’t developed as a hard-out off-roader - it’s an on demand system - the car has a chunky, no-nonsense solidity about it, no too far removed from the Subaru Forester which, unsurprisingly, given the Inchcape connection was a barometer for established price.

Hope of having the base petrol at the media event this week was dashed by a shipping delay, so all focus for this first drive is with the EVX, whose first shipment of 40 arrived last month and carries a $1000 discount as a launch incentive.

Notwithstanding that electric sales have been in the doldrums since Clean Car rebate was pulled, EVX has good chance of selling on being one step ahead of Hyundai and conjoined Kia, whose Tucson/Sportage platform and drivetrain co-shares only utilise battery effort up to hybrid level, and at higher pricing.

EVX is a more obviously modern looking car than the petrols simply from having dropped the standard grille and adding extra LED lights across the nose, yet there’s good reason for imagining Hyundai and Kia are dressing to slight more to modern themes, as this shape has been on domestic sale since 2022 and was all but signed off by the previous administration before the banks called in their loans.

KGM’s claim about the Torres being based on a new platform is also to be taken with some salt; the petrol engine is from the Korando that was Ssangyong-born and, as work on the car started before KG’s rescue, there’s possibility the architectures are related.

The design approach was the create a link with the original Korando and, beyond that, also ‘pick up’ on overseas’ trends. Basically, they are quite open about Torres having cribbed from some other well-regarded designs.

The petrol’s vertical-slat grille is close to what Jeep does, the profile is Ford Explorer-like and Land/Range Rover cues flavour the rear. The tailgate’s solid grab handle could have plucked from a two generations’-old Nissan Pathfinder.

Faux butch is laid on thick: The bonnet-mounted ‘grab’ handles - that no adult fingers could slip through - are the most chinzty and pointless adornment. The hump on the tailgate that suggests as a spare wheel cover (but isn’t) a close second. The roof rails are an intrigue: Are they actually designed for a load or roof bars?

KGM’s electric car programme has the best possible partner; China’s BYD has recently bumped Tesla as the world’s top EV maker by volume and the Blade battery technology that comes first to EVX and will implant into every future KGM electric is very well regarded.

Without the petrol to compare, it’s hard to say how different a Torres reliant on DC-enabled mains power is to the ICE donor, but batteries are heavy and the EVX’s gross vehicle mass is 2410kg, whereas overseas reports put the petrols at under two tonnes.

A two hour taster drive from Auckland city up to Riverhead delivered opportunity to run the car through busy city streets, on motorway and also a variety of rural roads.

Testing KGM NZ view of their car being a valid competitor for the VW ID.4 and on-runout ID.5 and the Tesla Model Y will await full appraisal, but as much as they line up well for size and even spec, it’s immediately clear that with the drivetrain provided by KGM's new technical partner delivering with front-drive, rather than the rear-drive format used by the opposition, there’s quite a difference in driving feel.

Though largely worked through in petrol cars, element of torque steer seems to require fresh consideration with electrics, given their immediacy. With KGM also implementing a rather bossy lane keep, the result on this first drive was an all-but continuous nagging slight yet always obvious push and push through the steering wheel that might, I suspect, become wearying to the wrists on a long drive.

The new platform delivers a more rounded dynamic performance than Ssangyongs of old, with better body control and keener turn-in. Yet it’s still tuned for comfort, so is not a car to punt hard. Try to tip into a corner at speed and it is immediately less resolved than the cited rivals. Little effort is needed to make the 245/45 R20 Nexen Radian GTX eco tyres work hard.

Performance seems respectable, with good overtaking pull, and efficiency on this limited drive looked good and despite the bluff front end and tall windscreen there’s not much wind rustle. What erodes cruising refinement is tyre roar on coarse chip.

From the driver’s seat - which is a little shapeless, BTW - the dash is dominated by those digital displays, integrated into one neat panel. The displays are crisp enough, and the system is reasonably rapid in operation, but there were issues on this drive.

The driver display is insufficiently shrouded from sunstrike, to point it becomes hard to read, plus it is almost overloaded with information. With the infotainment, meantime, some prompts are a little slow and the sub-menus are prolific and occasionally misleadingly-named.

Also, it’s a shame all key functions run through it. A couple of old-school buttons for altering the Drive mode from Comfort to Sport, or adjusting the audio, heating and ventilation would be be preferable to the current tour of sub-menus, even with shortcuts. Within 15 minutes of driving, it seemed every car was asking its driver to take a coffee break - how to deactivate that function flummoxed everyone, including the company technical head.

Considering the cabin in general, there’s masses of space for grown-ups, with generous leg, knee and headroom in the second row. Predilection for hard, industrial plastics continues into the new ownership; you’ll all too easily spot and feel these in the main cabin. The boot’s capacity is great, but a shame detailing stops short stopping your luggage from sliding around on the floor. There’s not a single hook on either side of the boot itself, either, which is unusual.

Still, if no-nonsense is your desire, then apart from the likelihood of some challenges becoming acquainted with the central screen, the Torres EVX could do nicely. The Mustang Mach-E’s standing as the largest cabined EV in the sub-$80k sector is under threat, the equipment level is solid and though it isn’t remotely resetting the bar for driving feel or dynamics, the range and 145kW charging specification should be appealing.