Saab set to re-form as electric vehicle manufacturer
Thu 14 June 2012
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A year after it last manufactured a vehicle Saab was sold to National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), a company set up to buy Saab assets, owned by a consortium of Chinese and Japanese investors. In a statement from the administrators Saab will start a new operation to develop and produce electric cars and has assets to cover about a third of its debts of 13bn kronor (£1.2bn).
Saab employs about 3,000 people and has its main base at Trollhattan in the west of Sweden, where investment in new electric car manufacturing will take place. The CEO and principal proprietor of the new automaker is Chinese businessman Kai Johan Jiang, who also has Swedish citizenship. The company will be chaired by Karl-Erling Trogen, a former head of the truck division of Volvo.
National Electric Vehicle said its first model would be based on the current Saab 9-3, with the addition of Japanese technology. It said it hoped to have its market debut by the end of 2013 or early 2014. It will also be working to roll out an all-new electric model, initially for the Chinese market.
General Motors bought Saab in the 1990s and after declaring bankruptcy in 2009, sought to close or sell its less profitable arms. In 2010, GM sold Saab to Spyker Cars, a small Dutch sports cars maker, which later changed its name to Swedish Automobile.
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