Saab back in production

Saab gets back into production next Monday, two years after going bankrupt, writes Brian Byrne.

The company, now owned by a China-based investment company with interests in renewable energy, will begin with series production of a 9-3 very similar to what had been the bread-and-butter model of the original maker.

An electric version is also envisaged.

Saab builds two cars on line

Saab restarted its production lines yesterday to build just two cars, pre-production new 9-3s ahead of a proper launch later in the year, writes Brian Byrne.

Saab closed its plant in April 2011, and the company and its assets were later bought by China-connected National Electric Vehicle Sweden.

The two cars are being used to fine-tune assembly. The production cars will be powered by gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines with turbochargers.

Saab people say the new car will be little different visually from the old one, which was built on an Opel-based platform.

An electric version is planned for next year.

A resurrection for Saab?

The Swedish-Chinese consortium that owns Saab is planning to put the brand back on the road with a 9-3 model before the end of this year, writes Brian Byrne.

National Electric Vehicle Sweden, owned by a Chinese energy entrepreneur, is expecting to have a turbocharged petrol car first, to be followed by an electric version next year.

NEVS bought the company out of bankruptcy last year following the cessation of production in 2011.

There's a claimed target production of 120,000 vehicles a year by 2016.

Saab may be back next summer

Saab could be back in production by next summer, according to the brand's current owners.

A petrol-powered 9-3 is under consideration, National Electric Vehicle Sweden told Automotive News Europe.

NEVS is owned by Hong Kong and Japanese business interests and bought the brand earlier this year after bankruptcy in 2011.

The majority shareholder, Hong Kong-based National Modern Energy Holdings, had originally envisaged restarting the brand with an electric car.

Turkish private equity firm plans Saab bid

Following on from yesterday's reveal that the Chinese are planning to bid again for Swedish carmaker Saab, it now appears a Turkish private equity firm also plans to bid for the bankrupt carmaker and revive its manufacturing.

Brightwell Holdings, which invests in energy, transport and technology, wants to buy all of Saab and plans to keep production in Sweden. The firm are in discussions with the administrators overseeing Sabb's bankruptcy as well as with the Saab CEO Victor Muller.

As reported, the Chinese group Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile may also make a bid for Saab next week.

An earlier attempt by Youngman to rescue Saab collapsed because of objections from General Motors Co. Much of the technology in Saab's cars is licensed from GM, which sold Saab in 2010. Saab, owned by Netherlands-based Swedish Automobile, filed for bankruptcy in December after running out of cash. Any transaction will need approval from GM, as well as the Swedish government and the European Investment Bank.

The OHM Group holds the Saab franchise in Ireland.

Chinese eye fresh bid for Saab

It is believed that Chinese group Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile could make a fresh bid for failed Swedish carmaker Saab next week.

Saab was declared bankrupt by a Swedish court in December after protracted rescue efforts by owner Swedish Automobile.

A key stumbling block was the refusal of former owner General Motors Co to allow its technology, which underpins Saab cars, to fall into Youngman's hands.

The Chinese group remains interested and is prepared to make an offer.

Saab to restart production today

Saab planned to restart its production line in Sweden today after six weeks of being idle due to cash flow problems.

Plans are to start off slowly, rolling out 100 cars on Friday instead of its usual 230 to 240 per day production.

Saab owner Spyker has been struggling to turn the Swedish carmaker around and ran out of cash to pay its suppliers, halting production and pushing it to the brink of collapse.

Meanwhile, Chinese car distributor Pangda is waiting for regulatory approval at home for its rescue of Saab in a deal worth up to €110 million.

Spyker recived an advance payment of €30 million from Pangda last week and had hoped to restart production by the end of this week.

Saab readies 9-5 wagon reveal

An estate version of the Saab 9-5 will be presented at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show.

Saab is hoping the arrival of the car will give the company a significant sales boost because half of all of the previous 9-5 sales were of the estate variant.

With 1,600 litres of cargo capacity, the wagon is due to go on sale in Europe and the US in September.

Third Saab model to debut

Although they don't yet mention a diesel engine option, the announcement of a new Saab crossover today does say that it will go on sale in Europe next year. That suggests there will be a diesel, because otherwise they're at nothing over here.

Meantime, the car will debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show as the production version of the Aero X concept, with a 2.8 V6 turbocharged petrol engine outputting 300hp, clearly aimed at the US where it will launch in May.

Sizewise it fits between the 9-3 and the new 9-5. It will have the XWD all-wheel-drive system and offer a number of driving modes.

With the petrol engine, the performance is an 8.3sec 0-100km/h. Fuel consumption and CO2 details have yet to be released.

First View: Saab 9-5

The prestige car market is well covered by Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, writes Brian Byrne. But not everyone who can afford those brands wants to actually buy their badges.

An alternative for such individualists was always Saab, the 9-3 for the C-Class/3 Series people, the 9-5 for those who actually didn't want an E-Class/5 Series.

But the 9-5, first introduced 13 years ago, has long been past its best buy date. The troubles of the then parent GM pushed back any realistic plans for replacement. And even when they finally got a new one off the drawing board, shown at Frankfurt last year, production was halted during GM's negotiations to sell the brand.

Saab/BMW in Mini engines deal

Saab and BMW have come to an agreement to supply Mini engines for the next generation Saab 9-3.

The 1.6 turbocharged petrol engines will be provided to the Swedish company from 2012.

Adapted to Saab's needs, the engine is expected to produce 200hp.

Saab-BMW link on engines, new model?

Saab and BMW are in negotiations for the German carmaker to supply engines for Saab's next generation 9-3.

According to reports in Automotive News, Saab also wants to use BMW's Mini platform for a new smaller 9-2 model, which would target the Audi A1.

Saab was bought from GM earlier this year by the Spyker car company. It's new generation 9-5 was just recently launched in Ireland.

The engines for the current 9-3 are sourced from the GM-Opel powertrain range.

Saab testing electric

Saab is betting into the electric car development business, with a version of its 9-3 estate.

The Saab 9-3 ePower has a projected driving range of 200kms, and will be shown at the Paris Motor Show.

Saab plans to have 70 cars on a test fleet next year.

New Saab 9-5 goes on sale

The new generation Saab 9-5 has gone on sale in Ireland at a starting price of €36,500.

The launch engine is a 160hp 2.0 diesel with CO2 emissions of 139g/km with manual transmission.

There are three specification levels.

A 2.0 biopower and a 2.0 180hp diesel will be available later. A 300hp 2.8 V6 petrol engine will also be on the lists but is not expected to figure in Ireland because of this country's CO2 tax regime.

Saab mulling small car

Saab is considering building a new small car styled on its 1950s 92 (above).

CEO Victor Muller says he is negotiating with other carmakers to share a technology and platform for the car, which he feels will help bring buyers attracted by the brand's core values.

Saab was bought by Netherlands-based Spyker, a supercar manufacturer, from GM. It has recently restarted production of its new 9-5 large sedan, stalled during the negotiations with GM.

Saab restarts production

A new generation Saab 9-5 was the first vehicle into production as the assembly line of Saab resumed today at the Trollhattan plant in Sweden.

Production at the factory had been halted seven weeks ago as the details of the takeover of the former GM subsidiary by Spyker Cars was negotiated and completed.

A Saab Convertible was also on the line, marking the concentration of Saab's production back to Sweden. A new 9-5 SportCombi will be introduced to the range next year.

Saab deal reached

General Motors and the Dutch Spyker Cars have announced that they have reached a deal on the purchase of the Swedish company.

The on-off talks have been concluded, and GM has suspended the winding down process of the company which it initiated before Christmas.

GM said it expects the sale to close in mid-February.

Dampeners on Saab rescue story

Reports this afternoon which suggest that a deal between supercar maker Spyker of Holland and GM has been struck, have been dampened by the companies concerned.

The deal was said to have been clinched by Swedish Government guarantees on a €400m loan from the European Investment Bank. But Spyker says talks remain ongoing, and GM says no deal has been reached. The Swedish government says no guarantees have been given.

Late last year, GM announced that it would be winding down Saab.

Saab deal struggles on

A last-minute attempt by Dutch niche carmaker Spyker to rescue a deal with GM over a proposed purchase of Saab is still on the table.

Last weekend Spyker sent in a revised plan to buy the Swedish brand, following GM's announced decision to close it down in an 'orderly' fashion.

Spyker had previously been in talks to buy Saab, but these were 'terminated' last week by GM.

Saab to be closed

The Saab motor company is to be wound down by its owner, General Motors.

The announcement this afternoon, just two days after the brand celebrated its 60th birthday, follows the failure of talks to sell the company to the Dutch sports car company Spyker.

A previous attempt to sell it to a consortium led by the Koeniggsegg carmaker had also failed.

GM says it will be wound down 'in an orderly manner'.

On Monday, Saab announced it had sold to Chinese carmaker Beijing Automotive (BAIC) all rights to the current 9-5 as well as some technologies from the current 9-3. BAIC plans to start production of its Saab-based own brand of cars as soon as 2011.

A new generation 9-5 unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show will not now be built as a Saab, though it may find its way into another GM brand, possibly Cadillac.

Saab was originally created as a division of the Swedish Aeroplane Company, which had been established in 1937 for the express purpose of building aircraft for the Swedish Air Force. In 1949, as a diversifying from its reliance on aircraft, the Saab 92 was put into production. The 2-cylinder, 2-stroke car later became the 93, its engine with a third cylinder.

A wagon variant, the 95, was added in 1959 and would remain in production for the next 20 years. The decade also saw Saab's first foray into true performance cars with the Saab 94, the first of four Saab Sonetts.

The Saab 99 in 1969 established the brand's styling for the next 20 years and it was also the company's first turbocharged model.

In December 1989, General Motors announced it had bought 50 percent of Saab's automobile division for US $600 million with an option to acquire the remaining shares within a decade. The new generation Saab 900 in 1994 used the same platform as the Opel Vectra and helped the company declare a profit in 1995 for the first time in seven years. In 2000, GM purchased the remaining shares of the automobile division, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary.

In 2005, as part of an attempt to establish the Cadillac brand in Europe, GM produced a 'Caddyised' variant of the 9-3 as the Cadillac BLS. It was unsuccessful in its purpose.