A half Chinese half Japanese company, with the wonderfully rousing name of National Electric Vehicles Sweden AB (NEVS), has completed the purchase of bankrupt automaker Saab. NEVS has confirmed plans to produce a range of electric vehicles using the most recent Saab 9-3 as a base car.
In the takeover, the Sino-Japanese consortium gained control of Saab Automobile AB, Saab Automobile Powertrain AB and Saab Automobile Tools AB, along with the Trollhättan manufacturing plant and all associated development facilities.
Most crucially to NEVS plans, the buyout also included the intellectual property associated with the Phoenix platform and the most recent Saab 9-3 model. NEVS has obtained the rights to use the Saab brand, but not the traditional Griffin logo. The reason for this is that ownership rights to the Griffin logo remain with the Saab AB aerospace company and the Scania AB truck manufacturer.
NEVS was formed purely for the purchase of Saab. A 51% stake is owned by Chinese National Modern Energy Holdings Ltd, with the remaining 49% owned by Japanese investment group Sun Investment LLC. The consortium has the approval of Spyker chief Victor Muller, whose company acquired Saab from General Motors a year ago. Based in Hong Kong, the company has Swede, Karl-Erling Trogen, at its helm.
This first project will come in the form of a pure-electric version of the recent Saab 9-3 model, with an ambitious launch date planned for the first half of 2014. The NEVS Saab 9-3 will not be sold to markets outside of China initially, but reports suggest that Saab would market electric Saab-branded vehicles across the globe. China will, due to its sheer size and in part because of its government-backed EV initiatives, be the main focus at first.
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