According to FT.com, Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile restarted production on Monday under its third owner in three years, with a plan of becoming an electric vehicle specialist initially focused on the Chinese market.
Ditched by former owners General Motors in 2010 as part of the US carmaker’s bankruptcy, Saab was bought by Dutch carmaker Swedish Automobile, only to declare itself bankrupt in December 2011. Its dramatic fall from stylish Scandinavian driving icon into acrimonious bankruptcy was one of the car industry’s most high-profile fallouts from the financial crisis.
Backed by Chinese money and Japanese battery technology, NEVS plans to steer Saab back to profit by blending its European past and electric future in a sales push in China, the world’s largest market, and a key battleground for electric vehicles, one of the industry’s most competitive future segments. After months of financial woes, failed restructurings and a tussle over its intellectual property, Chinese-Japanese investment group National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) picked up its carcass last June.
But Saab may struggle to match the scale and financial clout of other high-end European carmakers in China such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz, which boast both enormous research and development budgets and a substantial market presence.
The goals might be ambitious but the rebirth was low key. Its factory in Trollhättan, Sweden, chugged back into life on Monday after more than two years lying silent, producing not electric cars but an old version of its petrol-powered 9-3 sedan, at a leisurely pace of just 10 cars a day.
“Swedish expertise along with Japanese technology around batteries and new lightweight materials and our Chinese group’s focus on green technology is our strength for the future,” said Kai Johan Jiang, chief executive and NEVS’ owner.
The electric version will be launched next spring, initially in China, with the first 200 electric models already ordered by the city of Qingdao, which owns 22 per cent of the carmaker.
“Our aim is to be a frontrunner in the automotive industry, with focus on electric vehicles, where China is our initial main market. The pace of change towards cars powered by fossil free fuels will increase and China currently has the most ambitious efforts for electrification of the vehicle fleet,” the company said.
