Could New Saab Models See the Light of Day?
December 18, 2009
At last fall's Frankfurt auto show and at the Miami auto show shortly after, Saab's flagship 9- 
5, completely redesigned and ready for launch in 2010, made its debut.
Saab executives billed the launch of the 9-5 as the kick-off of a new era for the Swedish brand. Over the next 16 months, Saab said it would introduce four new models - the redesigned Sweden-built 9-5 sedan and SportCombi wagon along with the the all-wheel-drive 9-3X and the compact 9-4X luxury crossover.
Instead, on Friday, General Motors announced that plans to sell Saab to a new owner had failed, and it would wind-down the brand.
But could those new Saab models show up elsewhere? It's possible, a GM executive said.
In a conference call with reporters Friday morning, GM's John Smith, vice president of Corporate Planning and Alliances, said in the process of winding down Saab, a party could come forward expressing an interest in the rights to the Saab brand and/or its new models or parts of Saab.
"Saab has vehicles developed or in development that would be attractive to some folks," Smith acknowledged. "That's not been our focus; we've been concentrating on finding an investor for the whole company."
Smith further acknowledged that GM might be willing to consider selling the rights to the Saab brand name, opening the possibility that cars made by other manufacturers could wear the Saab nameplate.
Chinese automakers are the obvious candidates as they are hungry to acquire advanced technology and platforms to enhance their competitiveness within and outside of China.
Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings Ltd. (BAIC) would be a likely buyer for Saab assets. BAIC was going to help with financing the purchase of Saab by Swedish sports carmaker Koenigsegg until that deal fell through. The Chinese automaker has raised about $3 billion in funds for acquisitions.
Only last week, Saab and BAIC announced that they had closed on the sale of certain current version Saab 9-3 and 9-5 technolgies and tooling.
Still another possibility is GM's Chinese partner, SAIC Motor Corp., which reportedly was interested in buying some of Saab's assets, the Beijing-based Economic Observer reported Thursday.
Meantime, Ford is progressing toward a sale of its Swedish brand Volvo to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ford named Geely its preferred bidder for Volvo in October, and the two sides recently overcame intellectual property issues.
What is unlikely to happen is that a buyer would be interested in Saab's plants in Sweden, which employ a few thousand people. Sweden is a high-cost manufacturing base with an unfavorable currency exchange. -- Michelle Krebs, Senior Analyst and Editor at Large
Photos by GM
1 - The redesiged Saab 9-5 was being prepped for launch in 2010.
2 - The Saab 9-4X was to be a new crossover addition in the automaker's line.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:12 AM under Analysis , Companies , GM | Comments (2) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Glad I asked!
Posted by: highgearmedia | December 18, 2009 at 7:56 AM
I am 76% confident the SAAB name will get sold; it has cache in the West, anyway.
The Epsilon II-based SAAB 9-5/9-4X? I'm thinking halo models for Opel/Vauxhall & Buick. Similar to how the Oldsmobile Aurora was a half-note above the Intrigue; or when Chrysler discontinued the Eagle brand in 1998, the car lived on as the Chrysler 300M.
Posted by: fulcrumb | December 18, 2009 at 8:08 AM