Below you’ll find a five-part series of articles called ‘In Saab’s Corner’.
Right now there is a lot of talk going on about the financial side of this company. We’ve been beaten from pillar to post in certain markets and whilst some of that is warranted – we don’t shy away from our current problems – much of it not and it loses sight of why this company exists in the first place. We are distressed at the moment and we are trying to take measures to protect ourselves for the future. As the rest of the world speculates as to what might happen and the reasons why, I wanted to draw attention back to what this company is all about.
Saab is a company full of exceptional people who design and build cars based on a certain DNA and set of brand pillars. We do things the way we do them for a reason and we believe in the philosophy behind this company.
This is the overview. The following five articles are intended to draw your attention our products and technologies, our people, our brand, and our future with investors from China and what those investments will mean for Saab.
As I write this, Saab’s future is very much at stake. Decisions could be taken next week that deny this company a future that is so close that you can almost literally reach out and touch it.
A great deal has been written about various particular aspects of our business and actions. I hope this series can help people focus on what it is we actually do and what we are very confident about being able to do in the very near future.
In the car industry, it all comes down to product. The cars you’re offering to your customers.
We currently have the biggest range of Saab vehicles we’ve ever had – and that range is getting better every year.
Since being sold from General Motors, we have built and released the all-new Saab 9-5 Sedan. We’ve improved the Saab 9-3 with a range of low-emissions diesels and then with the introduction of the Griffin range of vehicles with the new 2.0T direct injection engine as well as other enhancements. Production and sales of the Saab 9-4x have commenced and as soon as production re-starts in Trollhattan, we will begin to build the new Saab 9-5 SportCombi.
That’s a pretty decent list of product-related achievements for a small car company that was in liquidation only 20 months ago. And still to come is the replacement for the Saab 9-3, our first vehicle developed in full since the separation from General Motors.
Saab 9-3 Griffin
The Saab 9-3 Griffin range involves more than just a subtle makeover. It’s without doubt the best Saab 9-3 offering that Saab have ever put on the market and a fitting way to farewell what has been our biggest selling model since its introduction.
If you’ve driven the 2.0T Saab 9-5, then imagine that engine in an even lighter and smaller car. Mouthwatering. The Saab 9-3 Griffin range brings the following changes/enhancements:
‘ice block’ headlamp effect a-la the Saab 9-5
new front grille with Saab wordmark a-la the Saab 9-5
Re-profiled front bumpers with trapezoidal air intake
Front fog lamps as standard equipment
New rear badging and Sport Sedan all variants receive a trunk-mounted spoiler
New wheel designs available.
New interior materials and patterns
Low emissions diesel engines (130, 160 and 180hp) available emitting just 119g/km CO2 for both Sport Sedan and SportCombi
New 2.0T petrol/biopower engine with extra power and torque, but lower emissions and consumption. Same engine as new Saab 9-5, with direct injection, twin scroll turbo and variable valve timing.
163hp petrol engine also available.
XWD and FWD available with both petrol engines in appropriate markets.
The Saab 9-3 Griffin range is available as Sport Sedan, SportCombi, 9-3x and Convertible.
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Saab 9-5
Launched in 2010, the new Saab 9-5 was a much anticipated vehicle. It’s design is clean and beautiful from every angle. Accommodation is generous, as is the equipment list.
The Saab 9-5 comes with a choice of two petrol engines in most markets (three in some). The 2.0T is wonderfully flexible and delivers excellent economy for a car capable of delivering such a great combination of performance and handling. The V6 Aero is a powerful, well equipped flagship that will eat up the road for hours at a time, turning a long distance trip into a walk in the park. In the corners, you won’t believe that a 5-meter long car can handle so ‘small’ (my tip is to go for the 2.0T, which is lighter and dances like a ballerina – amazing).
Two diesel engines are offered, with a frugal, low emissions single-turbo delivering 160hp and a mere 139g/km CO2. The twin-turbo has 190hp and is available with XWD – the first time diesel and XWD have been offered together on a Saab.
The equipment available on the 9-5 is impressive. Head-up display, altimeter speedo, advanced parking assist, jukebox music storage with audio device connectivity, rear seat DVD and climate control, U-rail trunk storage, Bi-Xenon smartbeam lighting, HiPer Strut suspension, Drivesense chassis control, XWD – the list is endless.
So many new cars are lifeless, personality-free appliances that it’s a real treat for someone like me (and maybe someone like you, too) to find one with a pulse.
The new Saab 9-5 Sport Sedan will be joined soon by the popular Saab 9-5 SportCombi. It’ll feature the same mechanical package as the sedan and looks fantastic in wagon form. This is our most popular body style for the European market so the launch of the vehicle is extremely important for us. And with so many manufacturers discontinuing their wagons in the US market, it will be an important addition for us there, too.
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Saab 9-4x
Our first ever crossover vehicle. The 9-4x vehicle development was led by Peter Dörrich, a Saab guy from right here in Trollhattan – and this one is a Saab from the ground up.
The 9-4x has received wonderful reviews from its initial year on the market. The car looks absolutely sensational (definitely the smartest in its class) and it’s car-like handling makes it a joy to drive for such a generously proportioned vehicle. And then there’s the generous equipment levels, with the Aero version of the 9-4x having only three items on the options list – every thing else being standard.
From my own Saab 9-4x review earlier this year:
I was really excited to finally get some seat time in a Saab 9-4x Aero and the experience exceeded my expectations. It’s perfectly proportioned, the interior is great, the seats are fantastic, it’s very well equipped, the power was brilliant, and it is without doubt the best looking crossover vehicle in its class. The drive is crisp, the car is very responsive and of course, the Saab 9-4x has stuck with the Saab tradition of safety in scoring a Top Safety Pick award from the IIHS.
The first thing I talk about when describing my first impression is that the 9-4X feels and drives smaller than you might think. When I set the mirrors to eliminate blind spots, I feel comfortable on multi-lane highways. On the narrow twisty road near my dealer, I was wondering how that would feel and the answer is great! I didn’t feel too conscious that it was too wide to stay in my lane and it felt great cornering.
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Coming soon – a new Saab 9-3
Can’t say too much about this one. But an all-new Saab 9-3 is coming, design led by Jason Castriota, technology led by a driven team of Saab engineers who are dying to prove to the world what this little company in Sweden can do.
You’ve heard a little about the new engine. You’ve heard about IQon. You’ve heard about the new hybrid driveline system from e-AAM.
There’ll be so much more, and a design package that will take all the best elements of Saab’s design ethos and bring it back home.
Much has been made of the damage done to our brand in recent years and there’s no denying that some of this is true, especially in recent months. In Scandinavia, the spotlight has been on this company in a way that I think it unprecedented for a car company and quite possibly for just about any company in Sweden.
Amongst all the hysteria, it’s easy for people to translate “brand damage” into meaning “no brand value at all” and nothing could be further from the truth.
Saab is quite literally the last of the independent premium European brands and for the right investor, that’s something that’s worth quite a lot. You can’t create 60+ years of history and achievement overnight. You can’t create enthusiasm or loyalty overnight. Current issues aside, it would take a decade or more to create what Saab has from scratch and that’s if everything goes right for you.
Saab is a manufacturer of premium automobiles, designed in Scandinavia and made here, too, with the singular exception of the 9-4x. Our DNA – Innovation, aircraft heritage and Scandinavian origin – influences everything that do. Our cars are developed with three brand pillars in mind – progressive design, sporty driver focus and responsible performance. These are built into every car we make and those attributes still mean plenty in 2011.
They mean that we minimise the potential adverse impacts for those around us (real life safety, environmental responsibility). They mean that we develop cars that engage the driver in the driving experience, building the car around the driver (our ‘cockpit’ interior is developed that way for a reason). Our designs consistently bring out an opinion in people that observe them, but they also serve people in terms of functionality and safety.
That sort of cohesive, holistic approach doesn’t come overnight, and not without some considerable forethought. We’re not for everyone, and we don’t try to be. But we’re quite deliberate in what we do.
We still have an image as an intelligent carmaker, one who does things a certain way for a reason. We cling without apology to our Scandinavian roots and imagery because it’s a vital part of who we are as a company, and the things we do.
We are fortunate enough to have built a number of automotive icons over the years and we think of those icons with pride: the world-beating early Saab rally cars that ignited passions in people all over Europe in the 1960s. The turbocharged revolution that Saab led in terms of family cars in the 1970s. The iconic Saab 900 range and especially the Saab Convertible that began its life in the 1980s and continues to this day. The versatile combination of performance and practicality of the Saab 9000 Aero in the 1990’s and the mad combination of beauty and brutality of the Saab 9-3 Viggen that saw in the 2000-10 decade, leading on to our most beautiful convertible ever in the ‘noughties’ and a true premium Saab sedan/wagon in the original Saab 9-5.
All of these vehicles have been taken into owners’ hearts over the years and have helped us to build one of the most dedicated and enthusiastic brand followings in the world. “We don’t just have customers, we have enthusiasts”.
This is a community that came out in the middle of a northern-hemisphere winter in January 2010 to demonstrate their love for the company when it was threatened with liquidation in early 2010. In 60 cities around the world, around 10,000 people came out in what was an unprecedented show of support for a car company. You can’t build that sort of support overnight.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, there’s no doubt that the Saab brand has suffered some level of damage in recent years/months.
The core of Saab’s DNA still exists, however. It lives on in our products, our design, our driving experience, and in the hearts of those who work here and drive our vehicles. We certainly need some stability and continuity to get our ‘mojo’ working again, but I’m absolutely convinced that the core principles of this company are worth fighting for, that people will come to Saab when they feel that conditions are right, and when they get to see and experience our new product.
What we have is worth preserving and building on, which is exactly what we plan to do.
This is a tricky one to tackle. How do you cover technology without covering stuff that you’re not actually allowed to talk about that much – future stuff?
Nevertheless, I’ll give it a try.
Saab have always had a good record of punching above their weight when it comes to innovation. Whether it’s early developments like heated seats, headlamp washers or dual-circuit braking systems, or the latest in vehicle safety or all-wheel-drive systems (Saab pioneered the XWD system from Haldex that’s now used in a range of vehicles around the world) – Saab has a great record for such a small company.
In terms of today’s technology, there’s a whole bunch of stuff on the burner that I can’t talk to you about because it’s slated for future release.
There has still been a fair bit happening, however, and a lot to talk about.
ePower
Saab has been developing it’s ePower electric vehicle in conjunction with partners to research electric vehicle technology. We’ve managed to show that you can produce a full size vehicle with an approximate 200km range with zero emissions from the tailpipe. That research and experience is going to play a key part in future vehicle development at Saab as we work towards building vehicles that are kinder to our environment and put motoring on a more sustainable footing for our buyers.
e-AAM
A number of staff from Saab left the company last year to take part in a new joint venture company co-owned between Saab and American Axle Company, called e-AAM. The company is developing a new electric all-wheel-drive system that will form the basis for a hybrid driveline that will be used in the replacement for Saab 9-3, now due in 2013.
IQon
Some people thought this was just a pretty video. Vapourware. I can tell you from personal experience that it’s not.
Saab’s IQon system is a new, Android based in-car infotainment and control system that will bring some of the application based technology that people enjoy in their smartphones in to their motor vehicle. This is a very exciting development and there are working systems in test vehicles right now. The future’s so bright for this technology that you really can’t see the horizon on it. It’s that good.
Low emissions TTiD engines
Saab wanted to do this a few years ago and were told that it couldn’t be done. Six months or so into our independence, we did it with the Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan. A few months later we announced that we’d done it with the 9-3 SportCombi as well – sub 120g/km CO2 emissions in a full-sized and full-powered vehicle.
Saab’s new TTiD low emissions range offers a full 180hp (as well as 130 and 160hp variants) and a low 119g/km of CO2 in emissions. Such figures were previously only available with much smaller cars, with much smaller engines. Saab offers it in a full-sized, full-powered wagon.
That sub-120g figure is just one example of Saab identifying and meeting it’s market needs through innovative engineering. The sub-120g figure means big savings for personal and fleet customers in terms of registration or road taxes in many of our important markets.
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Again, there’s a whole bunch of stuff under the covers that I can’t talk about now because it’s slated for future release.
These are just intended to be a sample of what this company has done, and what it’s capable of doing in the future with the right investment, the right partners and a good healthy dose of the Saab Spirit that saw us develop so many innovative technologies over the years.
They say that the biggest asset any company has is its people and Saab are no different in this respect. I’ve been connected to Saab people for a number of years now and it never ceases to amaze me, how such a small niche player in a little town in western Sweden can have such an attraction for supremely talented individuals. But it does.
The first week I started working here in Sweden, I was researching a story in our Technical Development Center. In one of the lunchrooms at TDC I met one of our more senior workers, a man whose name I can’t remember right now. He’d worked at Saab all of his adult life, 41 years if I remember correctly. He was impeccably dressed with his work coat over a shirt and tie. I imagine he’s been impeccably dressed in a similar manner for every work day of those 41 years. He and his wife both owned 1984 Saab 900s, which I didn’t see but could imagine were impeccably maintained as well.
As I sat there listening to this man’s experience, I was pleased to hear him say that he couldn’t imagine a better place to have spent his career than at Saab. I was a new guy who had loved the company for a good decade or so from afar and it was music to my ears to hear a veteran of the company confirm my thoughts as to what it would be like to work here. This was a chance meeting and I wasn’t equipped to do an interview. It’s to my own detriment that I haven’t chased him down to tell his story in full, but it’s indicative of the type of people we have here and the dedication that many show to this company.
People want to work here. I can remember chatting with a few designers back when Saab’s design functions were part of GM’s design center in Russelshiem, Germany. There were a number of brands that had design work done there. The brand they all wanted to work on was Saab, because it’s such an interesting brand, so different from the rest.
The fact that our people are dedicated and loyal is one thing. The quality they have even more than that – by the boat load – is talent.
It’s the talent of our people that has seen rival companies in our sector/area deliberately advertising similar positions during our months in crisis.
It’s the talent of our people that has enabled us to sell engineering services to competitor automotive companies.
It’s the talent of our people over the years that has seen Saab be ranked consistently as one of the safest vehicles that your money can buy, both in simulated and real life analyses.
It’s the talent of our people that saw us named as Center of Excellence for structural design, electronic management systems, engine turbocharging, transmissions and electric drivelines, chassis development and safety systems within the GM family. Not a bad CV for a little company out the back of nowhere in northern Europe.
It’s the talent of our people that has seen us develop IQon, the information/entertainment system that will debut with the new Saab 9-3. This is not just a promotional video. It’s a working system (around 60 of you saw a video of it in action before I was asked to pull it down) that’s well on its way to a real life debut.
It’s the talent of our people that saw the formation of e-AAM in conjunction with American Axle to develop the eXWD system that will debut in the new Saab 9-3 as well. That’s a working system, too, well and truly on its way to a real life debut.
There’s so much more in the way of technology and development that we could talk about here, but there’s another post in this series on that.
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Saab also has one of the most efficient automotive plants in Europe. We’ve won LEAN production awards in recent years for our manufacturing system.
It’s not just lean, either. It’s also flexible.
The Saab production line in Trollhattan will soon build two completely separate vehicles in five different body styles – all on the one production line.
Saab 9-3 – sedan, sportcombi, convertible
Saab 9-5 – sedan, sportcombi
This flexibility and modernity is one of the legacies that GM left for us, one that we’re very thankful for.
The Saab facility is unique amongst car manufacturers in that the whole vehicle design and manufacturing task can be carried out on the one campus. Here at Saab’s estate in Trollhattan we have technical development, design center, prototype lab, panel pressing, paint shop, final assembly, climate wind tunnel, test track, full safety labs and crash test facilities, as well as our administrative, marketing, financial, sales and aftersales offices. Everything can be done on site.
