The story of the Saab is kind of a sad one as it saw a car that was the favorite of many professionals in the architect, lawyer, and designer industries go from selling 133,000 vehicles in its top year of 2006 to going bust in 2011.
For those professionals that were drawn to the Saab the German alternatives like BMW, Mercedes, or Audi were a little to loud and pretentious whereas the Saab provided them with an acceptable alternative. They were a little removed from the professional norm but still a car full of quality and just as quick and luxurious.
From it’s top year the following time was a rather steep fall as sales in 2008 hit 93,000 and then fell even further to 27,000 in 2009. For Saab’s owners, General Motors, who had completed their takeover of the company in 2000, things were also heading downhill as bankruptcy was looming as they went into protection.
However as part of that bankruptcy protection General Motors was required to sell of some of their assets of which Saab was one of. Spyker, a Dutch company, picked up Saab but were unable to make a success of their purchase and as a result sold the company to National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) which primarily is a Swedish/Chinese investment company.
Now we have news from Car Finance 247 that NEVS will be making electric vehicle but that there will also be some new gas and diesel powered Saab 9-3 models coming as well. These will come off the previously mothballed assembly plant at Trollhattan next year.
Mikael Oestlund, a NEVS spokesperson, has said that the new 9-3 models will be the same as previous year’s models:
“It’s very similar, you can’t change or develop very much in a year. We acquired the assets in August last year. Our focus has been to get the co-operation up and running with 400 suppliers and ensure the facilities were working.”
For a company well known for automotive innovation, especially when it came to turbo in high volume production cars, the future now looks better than it has in a long time. However Oestlund cautions that in the beginning production will be limited as the company doesn’t want to make promises, or forecasts, that they don’t know if they can fulfil.
