TTELA – SAABSUNITED

Tidbits on NEVS from TTELA

July 6, 2016July 6, 2016 by Jonathan

TTELA recently posted an interesting article that sheds some light on the development work and progress of NEVS and their new electric cars. In “Här skapas Nevs nya bilmodeller” (Here the new car models of Nevs are created), TTELA got access to three out of four development rooms at the Stallbacka plant.

NEVS main entrance at the Stallbacka plant in Trollhättan. Picture: Michèl Annink

According to Frank Smit, project manager at NEVS, the whole company is involved in their projects, with 8 people being responsible for different main areas. They work with a large number of engineers in Trollhättan, while close to 80 people are working simultaneously in China (among other things with the new plant there).

As mentioned, they didn’t get access to one particular development room. That room might contain a new Phoenix based electric car.

One of the current projects at NEVS is the development of the third generation NEVS 9-3. “We are working on a new battery and a new electric engine”, Frank Smit says. Even though these cars are based on the Saab 9-3 from 2002, they have basically been built from scratch. There are about 30 NEVS 9-3 in existance in Trollhättan right now and approx. 10 NEVS 9-3 in China.

They also discuss transportation of the cars from Trollhättan to China, where NEVS claim that the Trans-Siberian railway is faster than transport by boat. Tests of the train rails in the Stallbacka plant has therefore recently been made.

Finally, there’s a clock counting down above one of the doors to the development rooms. It’s marked “Time Remaining” and at the time of TTELA’s visit (last Saturday), it was at 334 days. This is most likely a count down for the first car in China. According to Frank Smit this will happen in the second half of 2017.

Be sure to check out the article at TTELA for more pictures from their visit!

The first new Saabs have been ordered!

December 10, 2013 by Madelene Persson

göran fredriksson — Göran Fredriksson, Photo by Stefan Bennhage

As we all know, the Internet sale of the new produced NEVS 9-3 Aero 2014 started earlier today, and the sale started at 14:00CET (GMT+1) on saabcars.com. And it turned out that interest in new cars is there, already at 15: 30CET (GMT+1) they had recieved 10 orders.

– “It’s quite a lot of traffic on the website, simply good statistics, said Göran Fredriksson Nevs communication department to TTELA at 16 o’clock.”

Since they have chosen to an early stage of launching the new car to sale it through their website, there were speculations on how big interest would be. And it turned out that the response and the interest in the relatively new sales channel has been pretty good.

“It feels fantastic! It is always difficult to know how it will go, “said Göran Fredriksson”

Friday night snippets – racing edition

July 8, 2016September 7, 2012 by Rune Moberg

…or perhaps “the family and friends edition”?

If your car is not kicking up a cloud of dust behind you then you must be doing something wrong

Saab Parts would like to cooperate with NEVS

July 8, 2016June 16, 2012 by Rune Moberg

The following is a very rough translation of a recent article in ttela. Keep in mind that I’m not a native Swedish speaker, and the last few paragraphs were a bit lacking in detail.

Saab Parts were not included in the bankruptcy trustees’ sale to the National Electric Vehicle Sweden (Nevs).

– There is a lot of shared ground between our companies. What we have discussed so far is the access to the production tools, says Lennart Ståhl, managing director of Saab Automobile Parts.

There are between 10,000 and 15,000 tools out among Saab’s former suppliers.

Today they are owned by the bankruptcy estate and few of them are part of Nevs’ deal, but not all.

– There are 1800 suppliers in total and 1000 of them are in possession of our tools, says Lennart Ståhl.

Now it so that our means Saab [sic!], which means they are still owned by the estate. These tools are used to manufacture parts for Saab’s cars. The only tools that will not be used are those for the Saab 9-5 wagon which never made it into regular production and as such need no spares.

Saab Parts has leased part of the factory from the receivers. Partly the press shop where spare parts are manufactured, and also the northern office where 50 people work today.

– In the foreseeable future we will continue our presence in Trollhättan due to the high level of specialized competency among our employees there. A relocation from our current offices will be determined by what plans Nevs have, says Lennart Ståhl.

The National Debt Office earlier announced that they will acquire Saab Parts which was used as collateral for the EIB loan. As of February this year half of Saab Parts’ board of directors consists of representatives from the National Debt Office.

– They are well versed in our business and know exactly what kind of company they take over, says Lennart Ståhl.

He believes that a handover will take place in the near future.

– There is likely a desire of the bankruptcy trustees to liquidate the companies that remain in the bankruptcy estate. My guess is that a handover will happen within the next few weeks.

When Lennart Ståhl met with representatives from Nevs, they said that they need Saab Parts’ assistance.

– We also need help from them. We hope that they, for example, can produce parts using the press shop. The discussions we have had so far concerns the tools that currently resides with various suppliers and how to put the tools to use, says Lennart Ståhl.

Youngman Is Still Trying

June 8, 2012June 8, 2012 by JasonPowell

Just came across an article posted on Di.se and TTELA stating that Youngman has today submitted another offer for all of Saab. What does all this mean? Your guess is as good as mine. It states that they have shown evidence that they have the money but is that the money to purchase only or is this showing they have the money to invest into a future for Saab as well? Who knows?

Di.se

Chinese Youngman has added a new bid for SaabChinese Youngman consider themselves not at all be looking out the game in terms of the sale of Saab’s bankruptcy estate. The company presented on Friday a new bid.
“Our revised bid this morning includes all parts of Saab’sbankruptcy estates, including spare parts company. And our offeralso means that the state and the auctions will be full compensation for the debt which is in bankruptcy, that is 2.2 billion. Youngman has also provided evidence the money available, “said attorney JohnNylén, a spokesman for Youngman in Sweden.
“Youngman has now accelerated the ambition tobuy Saab and start production as soon as possible. We have hadongoing contact with the administrators, but we hope to get into an intensive contract discussions now.”

Youngman’s lawyer also adds this in comments:

Nylén also tells TT that Youngman has received “acknowledgmentletter” from the Chinese “super ministry” NDRC.
This letter also means that Youngman is the only chinese company allowed to purchase Saab’s assets and that no other chinese citizen is allowed in any constellation to acquire Saab’s assets.

It would appear that the possible road blocks that have been present in the past with the NDRC are not there now. As with any stories coming out right now, I would strongly caution reading too much into anything right now as a lot of what is said to and in the media changes. It would be great to have a set deadline where after said point all offers that are to be looked at have to be in by and that this nonsense of the never ending back and forth is gone.