Things have been conspicuously quiet for some time now as far as Saab is concerned; especially considering the shenanigans that the Swedish carmaker has been involved in the past two years.
Now, Saab is making headlines again as its new owner, National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS) that acquired many of its assets when it went bankrupt last year, announced that it has signed a deal with the Chinese city of Qingdao.
Qingdao, which has a population of 9 million, nearly equal to that of Sweden, will invest 2 billion Swedish crowns (US$307.3 million) via its Qingdao Qingbo Investment company in NEVS and acquire 22 percent of its shares.
Although the company hasn’t disclosed when the transaction will be completed, it said that it aims to ship the car it builds in its Trollhättan plant in Sweden to the Qingdao port and when the former runs at full capacity, build a new factory there.
NEVS plans to launch an all-electric vehicle based on the Saab 9-3 platform with a powertrain that is being developed in China and Japan. The deal struck last August gave Saab’s new owner the Trollhättan plant and its testing facilities along with the intellectual property rights for the 9-3 and the brand-new Phoenix platforms and the Saab name; that is, everything but the griffin logo.
By Andrew Tsaousis
Story References: Reuters
PHOTO GALLERY
