Very rare SAAB EV-1 goes on sale

SAAB EV-1

As you probably have heard, the Swedish automaker SAAB has filed for bankruptcy and now a local law firm involved in the liquidation of the company has posted for sale a list of more than 100 cars that up until now were a part of the SAAB Heritage Museum in Trollhattan, Sweden. Those who are interested in buying one of the available cars have to send in written bids by January 20.

We don’t have to tell you how many interesting and rare cars are for sale, out of which we notice the EV-1. This vehicle is based on a 1985 SAAB 900 Turbo and is motivated by a SAAB-tuned engine that pumps out 285 hp. This sporty 2+2 coupe is capable of doing the 0-62 mph sprint in 5.9 seconds and has a top speed of 168 mph. The car made a brief appearance in the second part of the Back to the Future franchise. We should mention that it has a solar-powered cooling fan and has an aerodynamic coupe styling

This isn’t an electric vehicle but it if you really need an EV from SAAB, there’s one on sale. Manufactured back in 1976, the vehicle was used by the Swedish postal service but now it is “a challenge to get working”, according to how it is described in the auction catalogue.

Source: Green Car Reports

Post tags: Tags: Saab, saab ev-1

Official: SAAB has filed for bankruptcy

Today we have some terrible news coming from Sweden where the local automaker SAAB has filed for bankruptcy. This has been confirmed through a statement made by the parent company Swedish Automobile NV (Swan). This decision comes on the same day when the District Court in Vänersborg was scheduled to decide whether to take the carmaker out of reorganization. This was the process that protected the company from its creditors while it was trying to grab the very necessary funds from China.

One of the crucial sticking points in Swan’s attempts to trash out a deal for saving the carmaker involved the former owner of SAAB which was General Motors. GM still has shares in Saab and they provide the technology that the Swedish automaker uses on some of its models. GM was more than reluctant to authorize the investment from Youngman in the carmaker due to the reason that it had issues regarding its intellectual property ending in Chinese hands in the event that SAAB would have been bought by Youngman.

If this application for bankruptcy filed by SAAB will be approved by the court, most likely the company will get a new administrator that will be replacing Guy Lofalk, the person who was in charge during the firm’s reorganization process. SAAB’s employees are still waiting for last month’s salaries while the December ones are imminent.

Swan stated last week that it had obtained significant cash injection from Youngman but they need more money in order to revitalize the carmaker.  What will happen to SAAB? We’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully, we’ll be hearing more of the carmaker in the next years but on more positive terms.

Source: SAAB via Auto Express

Post tags: Tags: bankruptcy, Saab, saab bankruptcy

Preliminary info about next-gen Saab 9-3 leaked

It seems that Saab will eventually be saved by a rescue deal worth 88 million pounds. Also on the table is another cash injection, totaling almost 300 million pounds. This financial aid comes from the Chinese automakers Pang Da and Youngman. The company’s plans are to introduce not only an all-new 9-1 model that will rival the Audi A1 and the Mini, but also a new generation for the 9-3 model.

The Swedish automaker plans on launching both 3- and 5-door version of the 9-1, along with a new model which will probably be called the 9-7, which will be a large SUV. In addition, the carmaker will probably bring the 9-4X to the United Kingdom as well.

This leaked photo of the new 9-3 was published by a Swedish website that acquired a copy of the company’s business presentation to the European Investment Bank at the beginning of this year. The new model will probably be out towards the end of 2012 and will be offered with a bunch of gasoline and diesel engines, along with both manual and automatic transmissions. One of these engines will be the BMW-sourced 1.6-liter turbocharged gasoline unit.

The new generation of the 9-3 will be built on an entirely new chassis that was developed by General Motors, who was the company’s previous owner. Both FWD and AWD hybrid versions will be available. Inside the cabin, the next-gen 9-3 will feature the advanced IQon infotainment system that uses the Android operating system developed by Google to offer satellite navigation and radio. Users will also be able to access their e-mails as well as download apps.

Design-wise, the new model will borrow a few styling cues from the PhoeniX concept that was unveiled back in March at the Geneva Motor Show, but it will also be inspired by its larger brother, the 9-5. What this means is that the new 9-3 will adopt a sportier look, featuring turbine-style alloys, boldly defined wheel arches and a coupe-like roofline. At the back it will have narrower tail lamps and a considerably curvier design.

The cabin of the next-gen Saab 9-3 will offer enough room for five adults along with a spacious trunk. The Swedish automaker is also working on convertible and estate versions of this model which will probably be launched sometime after the regular version comes out.

Source: Auto Express

Post tags: Tags: Saab, saab 9-3

Photo of the new SAAB 9-3 leaked

The photo you see here has been uncovered by a website from Sweden by the name of SVD Naringsliv that bought a presentation that Saab gave in 2010 to the European Investment Bank. The leaked photo hints at the shape of the upcoming generation of the 9-3 model which is one of the many models that with a little bit of luck will revive the struggling automaker.

The all-new Saab 9-3 is scheduled for a 2013 or 2014 release and it will come in fastback and convertible versions. In the company’s recovery plan, aside from this model there are other cars in the pipeline, like the 9-4X and 9-5 SportWagon, along with a possible 9-1 model.

The production of cars is expected to restart in the beginning of next year after Saab’s sale to Youngman and Pang Da was agreed a few days ago. The company’s future plans include a powerful expansion in China and Saab will be repositioned as a near-premium brand which will offer a renewed lineup.

The deal with the Chinese investors was signed last Friday after talks between the Victor Muller who is the boss of Swedish Automobile NV (the company that owns Saab) and the representatives of the aforementioned Youngman and Pang Da. These investors have agreed to invest 50 million Euros to fund Saab Automobile during its ongoing reorganization process. These two companies have also pledged approximately 615 million Euros to restart production and clear debts, as well as fund the Swedish automaker’s operations for the upcoming years.

Source: Autocar

Post tags: Tags: leaked photo, Saab, saab 9-3

More Problems For SAAB

It seems that the last-minute deal to save the Swedish automaker Saab will most likely be blocked by the government in China, according to the British car magazine Autocar, which as a consequence means that the company will be declared bankrupt very soon.

At the moment, Saab is in control of the courts while it applies to restructure and is waiting for a 60 million pounds loan from a Chinese car manufacturer by the name of Youngman so that they can pay the wages of the employees.

Aside from this short-term loan, the automaker is waiting for the Chinese government to approve an investment of 210 million pounds in the company by Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile and Pangda, two Chinese car makers.

Autocar believes that the local government won’t ratify any investment or a takeover of the Swedish car company due to the reason that the sale doesn’t include the purchase of any new intellectual property rights. General Motors who previously owned Saab has now a deal with SAIC, its Chinese partner firm for the Epsilo platform that Saab uses.

Source: Autocar

Post tags: Tags: Saab

SAAB Not Dead…Yet

We haven’t heard anything about Saab in the last few days but we have some good news coming from the Gothenburg Court of Appeal who agreed to the automaker’s voluntary reorganization plan, thus overturning the previous ruling of the Vanersborg District Court.

Needless to say, this is extremely good news for Saab who is getting ready to start implementing the aforementioned reorganization plan. The Swedish automaker, which is under the bankruptcy protection plans (similar to the Chapter 11 in the United States), has three months to reorganize but most likely they’ll ask for more time.

They already launched an initiative for improving efficiency and review the company’s strategy for next year and beyond that. Their main aim at the moment is to be a more cost efficient firm by finding out the areas where costs can be eliminated and also streamlining the processes and improving the cooperating between the departments within the company.

With this decision, all of the 3,700 workers will keep their jobs, at least for now…

Source: Saab

Post tags: Tags: Saab

SAAB Can’t Pay Its Employees

In this week’s episode about the Swedish automaker SAAB we find out that in July they weren’t able to pay half of the employees, thus creating new fears regarding the company’s future which at the moment doesn’t look very bright at all. According to SAAB, they weren’t able to pay the employees due to the fact that some of the investors didn’t provide the funds on time.

Approximately 1600 out of a total of 3600 people have been affected by this crisis, but SAAB didn’t say anything about how much money they are waiting to get from those investors. In June they managed to pay the salaries thanks to a 500-cars order coming from China, which was worth 11.5 million pounds. If you remember, last week we talked about the fact that SAAB will prolong the production halt because they don’t have the necessary parts.

Source: SAAB via Autocar.co.uk

Post tags: Tags: Saab

SAAB Extends Production Halt

When most of us though that SAAB’s problems were finally over after securing funding from two companies from China, this week the Swedish automaker announced that they won’t be starting the production of cars until the end of next month (at the earliest). As you probably know this already, the automaker hasn’t rolled out many cars this year as they were pretty much idle for the most part of this spring and summer. The reason behind this terrible situation is due to the lack of funding (what else?) so they weren’t able to pay the suppliers.

The company’s plans were to resume production on August 9^th but they said this week that this isn’t possible as they don’t have the necessary parts to assemble the vehicles. At the moment, there are almost 11,000 clients who are waiting for their cars to be delivered. When will this happen? Time will tell.

Source: SAAB via Inside Line

Post tags: Tags: Saab

First SAAB 9-4X Sold In The U.S.

You probably know that SAAB is going through some serious financial difficulties but it’s not all bad as last weekend they’ve started selling the 9-4X crossover in the United States. The Swedish automaker said that they have received orders for 100 units, which although doesn’t sound that impressive, it actually is important taking into consideration that in the U.S. last month they’ve managed to sell 323 cars so they need all the clients that they can get.

The SAAB 9-4X has a starting price of $34,205 and it is powered by a V6 3.0-liter engine that develops 262 hp (265 PS / 195 kW) and a peak torque of 223 lb.-ft (302 Nm). For $48,835 you can opt for the high performance Aero version that comes with a V6 2.8-liter turbocharged engine that churns 296 hp (300 PS / 221 kW) and 295 lb.-ft (400 Nm) of torque.

Source: SAAB via WCF

Post tags: Tags: Saab, saab 9-4x

SAAB Secures Deal, New Models To Come

We have some good news from SAAB as they finally manage to get out of the financial mess that they were into. The European Investment Bank approved the company’s sale of 50.1% of its property to a consortium of real estate investors from Sweden. More than that, SAAB signed a binding agreement with Youngman, a Chinese (of course) automaker for developing three new models: a new entry-level model (9-1), a large SUV (9-6x) and the large executive sedan (9-7).

Youngman, along with Pang Da who is the Chinese distributor and dealer network, are going to invest 221 million pounds in this deal which will see these three new models designed, engineered and developed at SAAB’s HQ in Trollhattan, Sweden. These cars are going to be manufactured in China by Youngman, but this deal isn’t yet set in stone as it needs the “regulatory approvals” both in Europe and China.

The aforementioned 9-6 large SUV and the 9-7 executive sedan are going to be based on SAAB’s brand new Phoenix platform that insiders say that it can be stretched up to 5.4 meters in length.

So it looks like the Swedish automaker’s bad days are finally over and there’s a bright future right around the corner. I’m eager to see how that new 9-7 model will look like as I’ve always had a crush for SAAB and a large executive sedan has tremendous potential.

Source: SAAB via Autocar.co.uk

Post tags: Tags: Saab, saab 9-1, saab 9-6x, saab 9-7, youngman

Unknown Chinese Buyer Orders 582 SAABs

In last week’s SAAB drama we’ve talked about the company’s difficulties to pay its employees. This week we have good news as a mystery Chinese buyer ordered 582 cars and he will forward a pre-payment of $18.4 million by the end of this week.

Victor Mueller, the CEO of Swedish Automobile (formerly known as Spyker Cars), current owner of SAAB, said that the company is still searching to acquire the necessary funding in order to pay the suppliers.

In other news, the automaker has reached an agreement with a consortium of Swedish real estate investors for the sale of 50.1% of Saab Property for the next 15 years. SAAB’s property consists of 483,000 m2 building space and the company will receive 28 million Euros and another 5 million after the sale, consisting of more shares.

For this deal to happen the Swedish National Debt Office has to release its pledge in the shares of the aforementioned Saab Property or else the EIB will diminish the loan by 120 million Euros.

More SAAB episodes coming soon… Stay tuned.

Source: SAAB via Carscoop

Post tags: Tags: Saab

SAAB Can’t Afford To Pay Its Employees

Last week, on June 13th, SAAB said something about a 218 million pounds investment. This sum of money is expected to come from a Chinese manufacturing firm by the name of Youngman, who will be investing 121 million pounds, in exchange for a 29.9% stake in the company. The rest of the cash will come from Pang Da, yet another Chinese company, who will be investing 97 million pounds for a 24% stake in the Swedish automaker.

We hope that SAAB will find a solution to these financial problems once and for all.

Source: SAAB via WhatCar

Post tags: Tags: News, Saab

Saab 9-5 SportWagon Revealed

From the looks of the car, the new 9-5 SportWagon promises to be a serious load carrier, offering a boot capacity of 520 liters and if you put down the rear seats, the capacity grows to an impressive 1600 liters. Speaking of the seats in the back, they can be folded down onto the seat squabs and according to the company; the flat-sided load bay will be “over six feet long.” As standard, you get a U-rail in the boot for securing your luggage and aluminum roof rails.

The new generation of the model benefits from the start/stop technology as standard, which means that the CO2 output is down. For example, the entry-level model with the diesel engine and manual gearbox returns 125 g/km in the sedan version and 128 g/km in the estate variant. For 39,195 pounds, you can opt for the top-of-the-line 2.8 V6 turbo 4×4 SportWagon model that comes with an automatic 6-speed gearbox.

Let’s just hope that they’ll sort out their financial problems and come up with more interesting models like this one.

Source: SAAB via Autocar.co.uk

Post tags: Tags: Saab, saab 9-5 sportwagon

SAAB’s Production Problems Persist

http://rpmgo.com/wp-admin/post-new.php#edit_timeWhen will it ever end for SAAB? It seems that yesterday the Swedish automaker had to halt production again at its plant in Trollhattan due to issues concerning supplier deliveries (what else?)

As a reminder, the company resumed production on May 27th after almost two months of inactivity due to lack of operating money. The suppliers were worried that the automaker will not have the necessary funds to pay them so they stopped delivering the necessary parts.

Interestingly, the CEO of Spyker Cars (owner of SAAB), Victor Muller, said to Reuters that he wasn’t aware of this shutdown.

All is not bad for SAAB as they’ll probably get some serious operating capital thanks to an investment made in its parent company – Spyker Cars by Pangda Automobile, a Chinese car distributor. However, the deal has not been closed yet as it is still pending approval from the local government.

We really hope that they will receive the necessary funding so that they will not have to face these problems anymore. I’m sure that none of us want to see SAAB closing its doors.

Source: Reuters via WCF

Post tags: Tags: production, Saab

Spyker Teams Up With Another Chinese Investor To Save Saab

Saab’s soap opera continues this week with the announcement made by Spyker in which they say that a new deal will be signed with another Chinese company. This time it is the Dhinese car distributor Pangda Automobile who promises to provide the necessary funding.

This new deal is worth 65 million Euros over the medium term, but the good thing for Saab is that they will receive a 30 million Euros infusion right away, followed later on by another 15 million Euros. In exchange for this cash infusion, Pangda will get a 24% stake in Spyker and if all things go as planned, over the long term, the deal could worth even 110 million Euros. This Chinese company handles the distribution for the Toyota, Honda and Subaru brands in China.

Hopefully, this time they will sign the deal and Saab will be saved for good.

Source: Reuters via WCF

Post tags: Tags: Pangda Automobile, Saab, Spyker