Mahindra, DongFeng and the others

Dongfeng, Mahindra, QingDao. I would never anticipate that after buying a swedish convertible I will learn about companies, with names sounding as when you play table tennis. And they would decide about the future of my beloved brand. Yes, the world is more and more globalised, but still...

OK. Saab is again in problems. The chinese city of QindDao doesn't fulfill its contractual obligations, in clear words it doesn't pay what was agreed to pay. So NEVS has no money for production. How nice.

Saabblog.net, sourcing swedish radio P4 West writes, the production will not continue until calendar week 33, which starts at 10. August 2014. This is 7.5 weeks from now on.

NEVS seeks for new partners in the Saab case. One of them is the indian Mahindra & Mahindra, nicknamed M&M, which is producing vehicles and is active in energy sector and farm equipment. M&M is a part of the huge Mahindra Group, which is with 180.000 employees larger than for example Microsoft (130k).

The second is DongFeng, a chinese state owned car manufacturer. It's one of the largest chinese car companies and established in 1969, one of the very old ones. They had joint activities with Nissan, Honda and Renault in the recent past.

The reason of interest is the PhoeniX platform. One consideration could be also the electric Saab, which was showcased in Trollhattan already 2-3 years ago. But after the recent announcement of Tesla motors, giving it's patents to the public, this might not be the case anymore.

Deals of this size are not done within weeks, so even the week 33, when the production should continue, is imho a very optimistic scenario.

So Saab is again in coma. For how long and how the "good morning" will look like, is unknown.

Btw. on this blog I use tags. In the dramatic GM/Victor Muller/NEVS times I had one tag called "saab drama" (see below). I never thought I will have to use it again.

NEVS Mattias Bergman presentation and slides

The "NEVS - our future" presentation on Saabfestival 2013 brought by Mattias Bergman was one of the highlights for many fans. The curiosity was big, the presentation room was completely full and people were listening to every word.

Thanks to SaabsUnited to allowing me to republish their video from the presentation. It's 42 minutes long and worth to listen to. Below are slides as I could photograph them.


And here the slides. Some of them have highlighted important parts in a red squares. All slides are clickable for higher resolution.

Jalopnik and a Jason Castriota interview

Jalopnik published a Saab related story called Why The Saab 9-3 Phoenix May Not Be Dead After All. It is related to the 9-3 Jason Castriota design, which was seen and discussed by the whole Saab community.

There are a couple of new parts in the puzzle. For example, all new Saab 9-3s were planned to be  AWD and hybrid. With the BMW four-cylinder engine as the front power source and electric engines with torque vectoring on the rear wheels. An example of Saab torque vectoring test can be seen in this video. Cool, I would go for this power train as it would bring more driving accuracy and less money for fuel.

Jason Castriota says about that it would make sense for NEVS to use this design for the new 9-3. Yes it would. However, the community response is the big question here. What you would prefer a Saab 9-3 Griffin (or the facelift before) or JC's design ?

The emphasis on Saab-ness (or Saabism if you want :) ) is another of the points of the interview.
Yes, it is a hatchback, and at least inspiration from the c900 in the rear, as well as the hatchback 9-3 from the side. However, for my taste there are too many compromises in it.

There are many more points covered in the interview, and there will be a Q&A session later this week on Jalopnik. So if you are interested in asking, you may have a success getting an answer.
It's worth to stay tuned.

Saab 64 – A Tribute to the History of Saab - a book to come

There is a new book to be released soon. ‘Saab 64 – A Tribute to the History of Saab’ illustrates the history of Saab cars from 1947 till 2011, and contains never-seen-before archive photos. It is written in English, Dutch and French. 

The book will be officialy presented at 6th of April in Luxembourg, at the annual meeting of the Saab Club of Luxemburg.

How to order and what's the price ? I don't know. More info should come soon and as far as I have it, it will appear on Saabism. 

edit : The price will be €24,95 and the book can be pre ordered on thesaabfarm@gmail.com
 
src : saablog-in, facebook, saabsunited

New SAAB logo and visual identity

NEVS has unveiled a new SAAB logo and parts of the visual identity. It was made public through a press release on the current NEVS website.

Also there is a new website coming, saabcars.com, which currently shows part of the visuals and will be updated soon. 

So what's new : 

The SAAB logo. It will be used on certain product parts including wheel hub covers and bonnet. The color will be silver against a white circular background. Right now we see a grey logo, reminding on the classic 900 logo. The wording stays, the font as well.

The visuals. There will be different visuals for the four seasons and respective road conditions. Right now it's winter in Sweden, so there is a snowy visual combined with Aurora borealis.

Also the NEVS logo is new. Similar to the SAAB logo, only the name NEVS in a nicely chosen and a sans serif font is the whole logo.

The design made by Stockholm Design Lab AB reminds on the older visuals of SAAB. The griffin as well as the aircraft parts are missing in the logo. The website visuals is too fresh and not complete to comment, but the trend is to see - very modern and kind of minimalistic. Actually in comparison with the current NEVS site it looks much better. Several levels better.

Things are moving. Hopely in the right direction. Under the given circumstances.

edit : reader Martin pointed out, that the logo is simillar to the Saab 99 logo and sent a nice photo :

 ... and the new logo reminds a bit on this 96 emblem on the C- pillar. It's a different font but the appearance is there :

Who bought Victor Muller's 9-5 Aero ?

The recent auction included some very rare Saabs like the 9-5 NG Aero from Victor Muller as well as couple of 9-5 NG SportCombi, 9-4X and others. I was thinking about auctioning as well, but it turned out to be out of my possibilities.

But at least 6 of the auctioned Saabs ended in very good hands. The Saab Service Suchomel in Usti nad Orlici, Czech Republic bought them. They love Saabs and know them very deeply. This is so cool and a huge congratulation to these rare pieces ! This is one of the very unique collections worldwide.

I hope to get a chance to make a closer coverage in the future. It's 240 km from my home, so definitely a summer trip worth. 

Just check it out : 

You can find more pictures on saabclubslovakia and a gallery here.

Sources : Saab Club Slovakia and Saabunderground.cz

SAAB production restart ?

Several SAAB news sites are writing about a letter that NEVS sent to suppliers. Reportedly NEVS examines a possibility to restart the production this year.

They claim to have capacity of 20.000 cars and if the manage to start produce in week 34 - starting 19. August, they can produce 8.000 cars. The production could raise in 2014.


The letter speaks about conventional Saab 9-3. No word about engines, but further the information says, they plan to start with 9-3 convertible and 9-3 sedan, later 9-3X. Electric engines should come next year.

The news comes after the announcement that the chinese City of Qingdao became partner of NEVS. The cars should be built in Trollhattan, there is no information about engines available.

Interesting and sounds good.

sources : Saabsunited, Saabblog.net and saablog-in.

Saab 9-5 SportCombi crash test

Finally I've got into a position, where the possibility to have a company car of the 9-5 level became reality. A combi. In 9.000 km a new car will come. If things at Saab were going good, the choice would be only one : a Saab 9-5 SportCombi.

Well, things are different, Saab doesn't exists anymore, NEVS is nowhere and anyway plans something else. So my choice is now pretty hard. One would say, sweet and luxury troubles, but if you have to drive 40-50.000 km a year, things are different.

But life's goes on ... 

So in memory of a non-existing car, which stays forever just a dream, here is a 65km/h front offset crash test (Euro NCAP equivalent test), found on Swadeology.

source : Swadeology

Update 3 : På Taket Saab 96 at Red Bull Rapids

Two videos. On the first our 96 is tested by the people from the Red Bull Rapids event on stability on the water. It is much more heavier now and seems to be super stable. The second video is the evening before the event.

Update 2 : På Taket Saab 96 at Red Bull Rapids

This video is from yesterday, from the firts swimming test of our amphibian Saab 96. Even much more worse weather didn't stopped the team to try it out. It swims ! :) Stability is a different story, but as this vessel will compete in a rafting channel, a keel makes no sense here. Only the crew balance.

The video is an facebook embed from one of the crew members. It's from the cargo harbour on the Danube river.

If you have troubles to see the video, at least some photos :

It works !

Safety rope is a must

A fight without scars isn't a fight

Maybe you want to know what it is all about and also see the previous first update.

Update 1 : På Taket Saab 96 at Red Bull Rapids

Our amphibian Saab 96 is progressing to the final stage. Time is running out, new issues to solve are appearing. Late evenings are spent with the Saab model. Working on smoothing of the surface again and again. Today are the real stability on water tests.

Another set of considerations is the one minute "circuss" while coming to the water and launch the På Taket on the water. Since we don't know, where in the sports area will be the platform of start on the water, so we were there to look. And guess. There seems to be only two possibilities, but maybe we are completely out of the real plans. If yes, than improvisation will come.

Also some flyer work was done, to explain what  På Taket means and why the name. The short story around is imho a strong one.

When the Saab freaks come together. Two more Saabs aren't in the picture. Six Saabs together.

Still too clean

Saint Saab. The original, but scratched idea for the wheels.

Final stage soon

A really sporty silhouette

Smoothing the surface

Public Relations

Half Life

Work until deep in the night. The colour is there.

Note : I have to find out, how to make image galleries / lightbox in the blog post. This is getting too far. Of course there is no time for that. Right now even not in the evenings. A task for the near future.

På Taket amphibian Saab 96 at Red Bull Rapids competition

The Red Bull Rapids annual event organised by Red Bull is challenging people to invent, design and create strange and funny "boats" which are competing each other at a one day competition. It happens in many countries around the world, including Slovakia.

This time our Puppy Hunters Saab Club decided to attend with a Saab car. Not with "just a regular Saab" but with the famous På Taket (on the roof) reminding on Erik Carlsoon and his legendary Saab 96 being several times on the roof.

The expression "Carlsson on the roof" originated from the children's story Karlsson på taket by Astrid Lindgren, in which a Karlsson character lived on the roof of an apartment building. The name was given to Carlsson as a result of his habit of occasionally rolling a rally car onto its roof. In the Safari Rally, he even rolled the car intentionally, to escape from a mud pool. When journalists later doubted his story, he proved it by rolling the car again. [src: wikipedia]

So we decided to make a custom red Erik Carlsson Saab 96 model, which can swim on the roof and compete on the event. A 1:1 scale would be too much, but the model is pretty large, it still has to carry four mariners. The size of the vessel is reduced a bit (length x width x height) : 2,7m x 1,4m x 1m vs. original 4m x 1,57m x 1,47m.

The size is a compromise between hosting 4 people on board and transportation to the place of the competition. One of us has an old VW Bus, which can carry our Saab vessel wherever needed.

Actually this is a third amphibian (as we could find) Saab :) It can travel on the road as well as swim on the water. It has wheels on which it rides to the water and than with a bit of magic combined with muscle power converts itself into a vessel.

It's in advanced stage of creation. The finalising stage is right now and a bit hectic, because the event is this Saturday, 15.9.2012 in a rafting channel at Cunovo, near Bratislava.

You can support us by coming if you are near or just give a like to our På Taket - Red Bull Rapids
facebook page. And of course crossing fingers :)

Some pictures from the creation (not finished yet) :

The think tank ...

Parts ... of course in a Viggen

Our deesigner at work ...

Our sophisticated documentation ...

Hard work

Industrial poetry

Exterior tuning

Interior tuning, heated seats :) 

Photos by Puppy Hunters Saab Club

More on this : update 1 and update two (video) 

Secrets

Major announcement TODAY

It's here, today it will be official. The big silence from the administrators seems to come to an end. Today they called the media for a press conference atd 13:00 CET to announce their decision about the future Saab owner.

You can watch the press conference live online through this link.  

The waiting is over.

edit : as most of the people know, the winner and new owner is National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB, planning to buy electric vehicles (not hybrids) for China. Firstly an enhanced Saab 9-3 ePower. and than next generation of 9-3 based on the PhoeniX platform. The rights to use the brand Saab is still under negotiation.

Rather no comment at this stage ...

Saab sold

TTela and Saabsunited are reporting, that Saab sale decision has been completed. The winner is not public as well as the timing of an official announcement. It's Thursday, so it can happen, that the official text is written right now. The original information "leaked" through an official of the City of Trollhattan.

So let's summarise. In the last weeks the circle of relevant and interested parties in buying Saab were shrinking to basically three : the electro (hybrid ?) consortium National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS), consisting of a Hong Kong based alternative energy company and japanese investment fund. Than Youngman, a chinese manufacturer of cars, buses and trucks. And Mahindra & Mahindra, a huge indian industry group, where one, pretty large division produces cars.

In the very last weeks the most media presence were coming about NEVS and Youngman. Mahindra and Mahindra was increasingly quiet. Some reports even said, they withdrawn from the bid process.

The winner as well as the set-up of the deal is unknown at this moment. The only weight of the "Saab sold" information is, that it comes from officials of the city of Trollhattan.

It is worth to watch the news right now. We were waiting for this decision for months.

Good luck Saab.

Update : NEVS should be the winner and the officials are denying to know anything. No official announcement about anything yet.

Update 2 : another text appeared at expressen.se. Nothing really new.

Update 3 : is here. 

sources : TTela, SU

Roller coasters and tumbles

It's May 31. and rumours are saying that until today or until end of the week the battle of Saab should be decided. And indeed, the increased news activity makes me somehow feel, that now is really the time of the decision. Sure, this feeling was here many times before. But... but Youngman is back with reportedly highest bid, there are many debates around NEVS, the electrocar consortium. Victor Muller is or was in Sweden for working with the administrators ... too many things in one moment.

Actually the starting passage of the video is showing exactly what is happening with Saab. So who will be the guys sitting in the 900 ?

Is electric Saab an alternative ?

The news, that the chinese car maker Youngman is out of the game in the battle of Saab, flew through media a few days ago. Another recent news says that one of the winners with high probability is NEVS (National Electric Vehicles of Sweden), a newly established consortium with the only purpose to buy Saab assets. It's also partially known who is behind : a chinese / HongKong based National Modern Energy Holding and Sun Investment, a venture capitalist company from Japan. The CEO is Karl-Erling Trogen, former CEO of Volvo Trucks.

The intent of NEVS is to buy Saab and produce electric vehicles and maybe hybrids.

This news obviously and immediately divided Saab fans into two groups : the haters and the "somehow agree on this". No really lovers of this idea.

My first feeling was of course an emotional shock. Me, the petrol fan, who even dislike diesels should now be a fan of EVs or hybrids ? No way. I am the hater. But to get a valid opinion one has to go a bit deeper than that. Namely to answer myself the question what makes my Saab for me so special.

Firstly the aerial industry roots, which are less and less visible in the current Saabs. Will they be ressurected in some parts of the interior ? We dont know.

The massive construction and safety features. Will this be maintained ? The first probably no, due to cost saving, the second definitely yes.

The chassis. The GM's Epsilon platform is gone for Saab. There are things deserving criticism, at least on my, maybe too strong 9-3. But generally for the normal Saabs the chassis was better working than on the Vectra, at least this was my impression. Will the PhoeniX platform be better and used ? We don't know, it is for sale.

The design. Will the new Saabs look that ugly as a Prius or Volt ? It depends on who will be the designer. Jason Castriota with the PhoeniX has set a very good base, will this be used ? Again, we don't know.

The saabish atmosphere inside. The indefinable thing causing such strong feeling of the driver. Will this be maintained ? We don't know.

The practical side of the things, large trunk, comfortable seats. Yes, they will definitely want to make the car as practical as possible. But an EV is not designed for long trips, so it doesn't need a large trunk.

The driving radius. Obviously an EV has short driving radius and long charging intervals. It is for the city and charging through the night. I don't need such a car. Hybrid ? Maybe.

The brand Saab. Will this continue ? We don't know. 

The Saab community. Unfortunately it will shrink.

The feeling to drive something special ? There are plans to sell 100.000 cars per year. It would be still a decent minor car maker, so yes, this feeling eventually could be there.

The strong engines. Until I've seen this video [youtube, 2:28min], I was sceptical. But the electric engine can give you impressive power and torque. Of course the disadvantage is the reach. But this is a demonstration of a what is possible. Will this be used in real life ? Maybe. If you can have a 300hp strong Saab, why couldn't you have a hybrid with similar power and significantly less fuel consumption ?

There are too many unknowns to hate it from the start. If NEVS wins the race and go ahead with their plan, it will mean a huge cultural change which many Saab lovers will not accept. Therefore in order to survive, there must come new customers.

For me personally, IF  the answers to "we don't know" will be yes, a hybrid is a valid option. Not an EV because of the driving radius, the batteries are not there. A hybrid yes. But only if NEVS can manage to produce Saabs with soul. And this will be a huge task to accomplish. Good luck than.

Youngman is out of the battle for Saab

That's came out today on Dagens Industri, the swedish economic newspaper. The negotiations with the chinese company, a hot candidate to be the new Saab owner, have been stopped.

"The reason that Youngman's out of the negotiations is that the administrators feel uncertain about the payments that are controlled by the Chinese bureaucracy and that they can take a long time,".

Also there are news saying, that the negotiations with the second hot candidate Mahindra & Mahindra aren't so intensive as they should be and that another new player is in the game : a chinese consortium consisting of a car and a battery company. They aim to build hybrid cars, projected volume around 100.000 units annualy.

One has to be careful with these informations. DI is known of spreading speculations and sometimes uncofirmed news around.

But the green / hybrid direction appears again and again. It doesn't matter if it's BAIC or someone else, green is modern these days as well as a huge business. It is supported in government circles. Also some realism appears in the switch from pure electric to hybrid cars.

The article mentions efforts of Volvo to establish partnership with the unnamed chinese consortium, however they are most likely not to be interested to buy Saab Parts AB, the spare parts company of Saab.

No word about GM, which has to say approve the deal.

We still have to wait, how the whole thing turns out. I'm a bit tired of waiting. But nothing else remains.

Credit : Saabsunited

A teaser for the Saab Museum in Trollhattan

The Saab Museum fansite came with a very nice redesign. It's really worth the click. Besides the design you will find many data about the models and their tech specs. Also the author has done a really well video teaser.

Here we go :


Credits : Saab Museum, Saabblog.net

The last 9-3 Griffin is saved

The Saabsunited fundraising campaign to save the last Saab 9-3 of the current era was a success. The fans and enthusiasts showed their power and collected more than the needed 28.500 €. So, the last 9-3 will be an exponate of the Saab Museum in Trollhattan. The car is in the finishing stage at ANA Trollhattan and in the next days it will be donated to the museum.

This is a demonstration of loyalty of the fans to the brand as well as a strong signal for the Saab administrators as well as for the new future owner.

I am very proud to see my name on the list of the donors.


Configuration of the Saab :

Saab 9-3 Aero Griffin
Engine: TTiD4, 180 hp
Transmission: Manual 6-Speed
Wheels: ALU88 17-inch Griffin
Color: Arctic White
Interior: Black Leather/Textile

Additional equipment: Auto-dimming rearview mirrors, Electrically controlled front seats, memory on the drivers seat, theft-alarm, Comfort-locking, Mobile Hands-free, Rain-sensor, parking-sensors, spare-wheel, carbon-fiber interior, Bose Premium Audio System 300W.
Retail Price: 331’850 SEK (€37’205 / $48’672)

You can find the production photos here. 

 Congratulations to the Saabsunited team !