E24 have followed up on the story about Saab expanding into Latin America, speaking to Adrian Hallmark today and getting some more details.
Following is a Googletrans of the original story, which can be found here, in Swedish.
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Why are you establishing a company in Latin America?
– Latin America is one of the world’s largest car markets and we are not there, we see a future for biofuel in Brazil, “says Adrian Hallmark.
– The car market in Latin America has a climate suitable for a premium brand like Saab, we see great opportunities to grow.
He says that the market in Latin America is polarized, with both very cheap cars in large volumes and bigger and more expensive cars in low volumes.
– It makes it a very interesting market for us. We want to beat us into a more expensive brand and compete with BMW, “says Adrian Hallmark.
Which countries are interesting?
– Brazil is our first choice but Argentina is on our list of interesting markets and we plan to re-establish ourselves in Chile and Mexico in the long run, “he says.
What is the timetable for setting out?
– We hope to have found our dealers before the year is over and then we can get started with sales in the first half of next year, “says Adrian Hallmark, who believes that sustainability is the key to good performance in the new markets.
– We are not looking for overnight success, we want to build from scratch and it will probably take us two years to achieve decent volumes. But we want to start now and find good partners as soon as possible.
Are you looking to other countries aside from Latin America?
– We also look at Russia, China and India. We have just re-introduced ourselves in Japan, and want to re-establish ourselves in Australia.
– This year we plan to invest in Russia and China, next year we will take on India, “says Adrian Hallmark.
General Motors distributed Saab cars in 23 countries around the world. But Adrian Hallmark says that GM was not fully focused on the Saab and sales were, in many cases, modest.
– Look at Australia for example, we know that there is potential for many more Saab sales than the rather mediocre market we had before, “says Adrian Hallmark.
– GM also tried launching Saab in Russia, with neither major investments or strategies. Now we can do it on your own and we can do it properly. We ship to which a project team that will lead to the establishment at some point next week, says the former Volkswagen director, who was recruited by Saab earlier this year.
Even in Russia, Saab plans to start setting up care and have a long term plan.
– It is important to think long term if you want to enter these markets and we do. We will attack them systematically over the coming years so that we can get them on their feet, “says Adrian Hallmark.
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