An electric pickup is now the rescue car at Zandvoort, and that matters more than it sounds
If an electric pickup can do a race weekend, it can do your working week
There is no more demanding test of a working vehicle than a race circuit on a busy event day: long hours, heavy loads, no room for a breakdown and the constant need to be ready in seconds. So it is quietly telling that Circuit Zandvoort has just handed that job to a fleet of electric pickups. KGM, the brand you may still know as SsangYong, is the track's new official Rescue Car Partner.
What the deal involves
Four fully electric KGM Musso EV pickups now serve as rescue and support vehicles at Zandvoort, put to work during the circuit's biggest events, including the Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix. Each Musso EV can tow up to 2,300 kg, so it can drag stricken race cars, haul barriers and carry equipment while running silently and locally emissions-free. The partnership was announced by KGM Benelux, the brand's official importer for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Why Zandvoort chose it
According to Niek Oude Luttikhuis, the circuit's Head of Technology and Innovation, the Musso EV was chosen on a blunt mix of reliability, performance, sustainability and cost, with competitive pricing weighing heavily in the decision. Running an electric rescue fleet also supports Zandvoort's FIA sustainability ranking, part of a wider push to clean up how circuits operate behind the scenes. In other words, this was a practical procurement decision as much as a green gesture, which is what makes it credible.
The bigger point about KGM
For KGM this is a smart bit of profile-raising in a region where the brand is still rebuilding recognition after dropping the SsangYong name. Putting its electric pickup to work in full view at the country's Formula 1 venue is a far more persuasive advert than any showroom poster, because it shows the Musso EV doing a genuinely hard job rather than just posing. The message KGM wants you to take away is simple: this is electric mobility for professional use, where power, towing and dependability actually matter, not just a lifestyle choice.
AutoNext Take
It is easy to be cynical about a sponsorship deal, but this one is more interesting than most because of what it quietly proves. The electric pickup has been one of the harder EV cases to make, with doubters pointing to towing, range and hard use as the places batteries fall down. A race circuit choosing four of them for rescue duty, on cost and reliability rather than idealism, is a real-world counterargument that lands better than any brochure claim. If it is dependable enough to be trusted at a Grand Prix, the everyday tradesperson's worries start to look overblown.
It is also a neat reminder that KGM is quietly becoming a serious value player in the Benelux. The brand will never win on badge prestige, but undercutting rivals while proving its products can do proper work is exactly the right strategy for a challenger. A high-visibility role at Zandvoort, doing something useful rather than merely wearing a logo, is the kind of marketing that actually changes minds. Cynical? A little. Effective? Almost certainly.
