Time to catch up with a few of the stories floating into my inbox whilst I’ve been travelling.
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The Wall Street Journal has an article that I can’t see as I’m not a subscriber. The headline says enough, however….
Access to GM at Question in China Bid
The undelying premise here is that BAIC previously bid for Opel and were unsuccessful, reportedly due to concerns about intellectual property. How true that actually is, we may never know.
But if GM did rebuff BAIC on technology grounds, then the big question is whether or not GM can have any sort of Veto in the Saab transaction.
BAIC, remember, haven’t done a deal with GM here. They’ve done a deal with Koenigsegg Group, who are now party to a binding share purchase agreement.
If all goes through, then BAIC would get some level of access to GM technology through Saab’s current model line.
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Do you remember this car?
The car we’re referring to is the one to the left…… the 9-3 with the black wheels and extended wheel arches, etc. There was a lot of theorising in comments to that post about what the car could be.
Today I’ve heard from a Djup Strupe based in the US who’s spilled the beans on exactly what it is (or was, more accurately).
What we were looking at there is a test mule of a Cadillac BLS-V. A car that will never exist.
What’s a trifle annoying about it is that it was fitted with the kind of powertrain that many of us wish the Turbo X would have had from the beginning.
The engine in that mule is basically a working version of the conceptual engine mentioned in press materials for the Saab Aero-X. That is, a high-feature V6 with twin turbos and putting down around 400hp and 500nm of torque.
The vehicle was apparently in development until the BLS was ditched. Rumour is that it’s not going to feature in any vehicles, but the other rumour is there’s another vehicle, in Trollhattan, with that engine fitted for some initial evaluations.
That vehicle plan will likely go the same way as the BLS plan. But it’s interesting to know. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it later in the week.
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