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Saab 9-3 Production Commences After Two Years
Saab, the Swedish automaker has risen from the grave. At least, sort of. On December 2 full fledged production of the Saab 9-3 sedan began once again at the automaker's Trollhattan plant in Sweden. The facility had not seen full scale production in the plant since it went into bankruptcy in 2011.
For those who are not familiar with Saab's story, here's a quick look back into history. The Swedish premium car maker, founded in 1945, was part of the Saab Group that's into defense and aerospace. Then in 1989 the automobile division was sold to GM, which after nearly two decades of ownership, realised it could not revive the brand's fortunes and gave up on it in 2010. Saab went into bankruptcy the next year.
A major part of Saab's accessts was acquired by National Electric Vehicle Sweden, a company that's owned by a Chinese firm and the city if Qingdao. Post acquisition, NEVS promised it would revive Saab and took the first step in September this year when it manufactured two Saab 9-3 models, which was meant to show the company had put back together the old supplier chain network and was ready to begin full scale production.
Now, Saab is back in business and the first batch of the 9-3 sedans has already been pre sold, for use by the Chinese government. Eventually, Saab models will be sold across China and Sweden and possibly in other parts of Europe.
As for the car itself, it is essentially the same old, pre-collapse Saab 9-3 that's powered by the same 2.0 liter turbocharged petrol engine, is built on the 2002 Vectra platform and features the pre-collapse Epsilon' 9-3 body.
However, NEVS has stated that after a year's production the company will shift to an all-electric 9-3, with a launch set for 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show. However, as part of the agreement, through the new cars will be allowed to wear the ‘Saab' badge, they cannot use the griffin logo and neither can NEVS change its name to SAAB at any point in the future.
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