History
Samsung Motors (also known as SMI) was created after the Samsung's Chairman Kun Hee Lee recognized the automobile industry as the culmination of several other industries. For the Samsung group this would allow to leverage resources and technologies from the entire group including Samsung Electrics and Samsung Electronics. Unfortunately for Samsung shortly after Samsung Motors was established 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 was itself bought by GM. Hyundai Motors was also considered as a possible buyer, but corporate politics and strife between the Samsung Group and the Hyundai Group made this impossible.
Coupled with his personal affection for cars, Mr. Lee's dream of building SMI as a global force started out with technical assistance from Nissan, a company which at the time of SMI's early stages was in dire financial straits. SMI's affiliation with Nissan could have been one of the reasons for Renault buying a major share of the company, as Renault had become a major shareholder of Nissan by then. One of the very early planners for SMI has stated that technical affiliations for SMI were initially considered with either Volkswagen or Honda. However, its financial situation had forced Nissan to disclose its technology and engineering expertise to SMI. Also, Nissan has supplied SMI with its engines, one of them being Nissan's famed V6 engines the VQ23DE, currently replaced by the VQ35DE.
Since 1999 Renault Samsung Motors has been selling cars in Chile when the company introduced the SQ5 (then SM5). As of 2011, Chile is the only country that RSM sold its cars under Renault Samsung Motors and not as rebadged Renaults.
Read more about this topic: Renault Samsung Motors
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—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)