NEVS Preparing to Restart Production at Old Saab Factory

National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), the holding company that currently owns SaabMaserati Birdcage 75thItaly, 2005 > 20051 Version
2 photos
, says that production of the 9-3Saab 9-3 Gen.2Sweden, 2003 > present237 versions
456 photos
will begin before the end of the year. The company has hired 300 factory employees and plans to sell the cars in Europe and China. 

NEVS says that the new 9-3 will use the same platform and many of the same parts of the 9-3 that ended production in 2011. At the start, it will be offered with a turbocharged four-cylinder engine, and the pure EV version will be launched early next year. The battery packs will come from Beijing National Battery Technology, which is owned by one of the investors in NEVS.

After 9-3 is in production, NEVS will begin building other cars on the car's Phoenix platform. However, work has to be done first to remove the 20% of the platform's parts that come from GM, Saab's former owner.

"The Phoenix architecture is very flexible and when fully developed it will give us the opportunity to design and manufacture several models from smaller to bigger cars. We have not yet decided which models and we have no time plan -- that is some years ahead," said Mikael Oestlund, NEVS spokesperson.

NEVS is owned by a consortium of Chinese and Japanese investors that bought Saab in August 2012.

"Saab will again be a global brand, but we will gradually add markets. The U.S. market is important for us and we intend to enter when we see that we have a business case," he said.

Source: Automotive News Europe