Saab getting closer to restarting production

By John LeBlanc After being dumped by former parent General Motors, followed by a long and drawn out bankruptcy process, then the subsequent purchase of its assets by the National Electric Vehicle Sweden (whew!) the Swedish automaker Saab is readying itself to start making cars again in its native land. You probably already know the Saab story. Born in 1937 to build airplanes, the Swedish company started producing its first automobile, the 92, in 1949. In 1989, U.S. automaker GM bought into Saab, and kept the relatively low-volume automaker afloat for two decades, finally succumbing in 2010 and selling the brand to Dutch supercar-maker Spyker. What happened between that time and when the Chinese-Japanese consortium National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) bought the bankrupt Saab assets in June 2012 is worthy of a good, long book. But the new owners at NEVS say all of Saab’s history is literally in the past, as this week it announced that the old Saab plant in Trollhattan, Sweden is “practically ready” to start producing the a reborn 9-3 later this year. According to NEVS spokesperson, Mikael Oestlund, the new 9-3 will be very close in spec to the last, 2011 version, with plans for up to 120,000 copies being pumped out of the Swedish factory on an annual basis by 2016 (keep in mind, Saab’s total sales never rose above 133,000 units, in 2006.). Except for saying the gas-engine model will be turbocharged, no other engineering details have been announced. A planned electric 9-3, scheduled to start production in 2014, will apparently get a more thorough styling redesign. In addition to the reborn 9-3, NEVS says all-new Saabs will come from the stillborn Phoenix platform (seen above) that debuted at the 2011 Geneva auto show. "The Phoenix architecture is very flexible and when fully developed it will give us the opportunity to design and manufacture several models from smaller to bigger cars. We have not yet decided which models and we have no time plan — that is some years ahead," Oestlund told Automotive News Europe. While fans of the Swedish cult brand may find this good news, Canadian Saabistas should not hold their collective breath for the new Saabs to arrive here any time soon. NEVS says initial 9-3 production will go to Europe and China, with U.S. sales being a just a possibility. "Saab will again be a global brand, but we will gradually add markets. The U.S. market is important for us and we intend to enter when we see that we have a business case," Oestlund said. What do you think? After so many fits and starts, does Saab have a chance to rise from the ashes? Or should the brand be left for dead? Source: Automotive News Europe

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