Saab Archives - Swadeology

Vale Erik Carlsson

Ironic that this should happen just a few hours after NEVS’s positive news……. but it’s turned into a sad day for Trollhattan and Saab fans in general.

It’s with great sadness that I report today on the passing of a Saab legend, perhaps the biggest Saab legend of all – Mr Erik Carlsson. Erik passed away in his adopted England today after a short illness. He was surrounded by family.

“Mr Saab” was born in Trollhattan, Sweden, in March 1929 and the story of his life is inextricably bound to the city and the car company that was based there.

Erik drove his first rally victory in a Saab in 1955 when the company was less than 10 years old. That was a two-cylinder Saab 92 and he went on to experience rally success with the Saab 93, Saab 95 and the Saab 96 with both two-stroke and V4 engines.

Saab fans will be well aware of his successes. While Erik won various events between 1955 and 1959, it was his winning of the RAC Rally of 1960, the first year of the Saab 96, that cemented both he and Saab on the motorsport map. Erik’s legend goes hand-in-hand with the Saab 96, which he took to first place in the famous Monte Carlo Rally in 1962 and 1963. He also won the RAC Rally two more times in 1961 and 1962. The 1000 Lakes Rally, the Acropolis Rally, the Swedish Rally, the San Remo Rally, the Czech Rally – all of them have Erik Carlsson’s name in their history books under “Winner” and many more have him as being placed on the podium.

Erik even drove the heavier Saab 95 estate vehicle at Monte Carlo, finishing in 4th position in 1961. I’m not sure that a two-door, 7-seat station wagon has ever been so close to glory, either before or since!

After his retirement from rallying, Erik became Saab’s most prominent ambassador. The amount of frequent flyer miles he would have accumulated travelling for Saab to events around the world would have broken most airline computers, I’m sure.

It must be said, however, that Erik’s days as an ambassador for the company took shape even when he was still rallying. When accepting victory trophies in his Saab 96, Erik always insisted that the car was cleaned before it was presented. He and his co-driver would always show up in dress suits rather than racing suits to accept the trophy. Presentation was paramount.

Erik famously promoted the Saab 900 at events around the world, driving it at speed over a large blade that would puncture the front tyre. At the time of the puncture, Erik would raise his hands out from the sunroof to show how well balanced the Saab was even under pressure.

Erik’s longevity as a Saab ambassador – a role he played well into his Eighties – can be attributed to his personal charm. Erik loved the role and he played it well. He had a cheeky smile, plenty of stories to tell and a willingness to engage anyone in conversation. And so prominent was Erik as an identity at Saab that they released three Carlsson edition vehicles in his honour – a Saab 900, a Saab 9000 and a Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan.

There would barely be a Saab fan that’s travelled to a prominent Saab event that didn’t get a handshake, a photograph or an autograph from the great man. He had time for everyone, even in his later years.

I had the good fortune to spend an afternoon with Mr Saab back in 2012. The day was organised by mutual good friends Mike and Hilary, who have spent a lot of time with the great man in the last 20 years. I encourage you to read that story as it says a lot about him outside of the spotlight.

That day taught me a lot about Erik Carlsson. It showed me the way he cared for the company, talking about it in an educated fashion like a man who still had his finger on the pulse, even in his advanced years and at such a distance. It showed me the way he loved his RAC replica Saab 96 (see video, below), which he drove with such exuberance on the day. More than that, though, it showed me his warmth as a man. He was deeply charming, extremely generous with his time and compliments, and he loved his family deeply.

Erik Carlsson married Pat Moss, the sister of Sir Sterling Moss, in 1963 and like his heritage from Trollhattan, this partnership shaped the rest of his life. Pat Moss was an accomplished driver in her own right and they wrote a book about the art of driving together. The couple settled in England, where Pat indulged her other passion – horses – which she passed on to their daughter Susie. Erik still lived just down the road from his daughter right up until his passing.

Erik Carlsson lived a full life, passing away at the age of 86. It was a life worth celebrating, a life to be remembered with fondness.

He was, and always will be remembered as Mr Saab.

Vale Erik Carlsson.

Video: Saab 96 on For The Love Of Cars

I’ve just finished watching this episode of For The Love Of Cars and I just had to share it here. It’s a great story, but even more than that, it’s a great little Saab 96.

There’s a bit of a story to this. The program you’re about to see was aired on Channel 4 in Britain last Sunday. The auction you see in the video was actually conducted back in January, but the day before the show went on TV (i.e. last Saturday), the car was auctioned once again.

The reasons behind all this back-and-forth become clear at the end of the show and it’s a touching story. I haven’t been able to find the price from last weekend’s auction but hopefully it’ll become public soon.

About the car – it’s a basic Saab 96 from the early 70’s but it wins the boys over completely with its engineering and its charm. It made my want to go hunt one down, actually.

The program goes for 50 minutes. Enjoy.

Exclusive: Saab Assets Purchased by Apple Computer

Finally!

After months of negotiations and more suspense than a Steig Larsson sequel, the story can finally be broken – Apple will seek to break into the car market using bargain basement technology on offer under duress in Trollhattan, Sweden.

Apple is going to buy what used to be Saab Automobile from National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) in a deal that is set to shock both the electronics and vehicle industries.

Speaking exclusively, Apple CEO, Tim Kook said the following today:

There’s been a lot of speculation about Apple moving into this area and we can finally confirm that it’s all true. We see the automobile as the next step for human connectedness. For example, we think the work Volvo and other companies have done on connected safety systems is extremely interesting. But we also think there’s room for more innovation. We intend to accelerate that process. And then apply automatic braking, of course.

Addressing rumours that it was an Asian buyer that was negotiating to take a controlling stake in NEVS’s operations:

It’s true that we’re not an Asian company BUT we do make most of our products there so the ruse was only half-baked. As many people know, I can’t break wind without it being front page news so we decided to take this circuitous route and surprise the market.

Surprise!

I’d like to thank Mahindra for negotiating on Apple’s behalf. As a thankyou, we’ve also bought Mahindra, which will henceforth be known as i-Mahindra. All their trucks will be painted white in the future and will feature no hard edges.

So what will Apple build with its newly purchased car company?

Whatever Google’s building, really. Just slightly better. We’ll make it function a little smoother and of course, it’ll look much nicer. It’ll be electric. It’ll be a car. It might just be an electric car, but with an Apple twist.

For example, we are working on technology that will allow us to use a touch-windscreen. If you don’t like the street you’re on, simply swipe and you’ll be on the street to the left or the right.

Saab owners have been babbling on about how Saab and Apple are so alike for years and years. “Think Different” and all that. We think it’s true, except for the fact that Saab is broke and Apple has more money than God (who, incidentally, is just one of the deities we’re in negotiations with at the moment. Watch this space).

Regardless, we thought it was about time we join our minimalist design principals with a Swedish company and Saab was an ideal choice because it was available and it was cheap. We would have picked Ikea but I really hate building the stuff. And if I see another Billy bookcase I think I’m going to puke!

Kook confirmed that the vehicle will be called an i-Saab.

We had some trouble negotiating with Saab AB, the defence company that controls the use of the Saab name. So we bought them, too. Problem solved!

The re-named iGripen fighters will all be painted white later this year and have all hard edges removed. The Russki’s won’t see a single one of them in winter.

And how has this news been received in other areas of Apple’s business?

Jony Ive’s been itching to design something more interesting than the same old rectangle he’s been trotting out for years and just wouldn’t shut up about it. This acquisition should keep him and his hipster mates happy for five minutes.

Maybe.

Happy April 1st to all of you 🙂

First Cars – Saab and Alfa Romeo

I was cleaning some stuff up at home yesterday when I found the following photos of my first (and second) Saab and my first Alfa Romeo. I figured they were nostalgic enough to share here on the website.

First, I have to apologise for the poor quality photos. These are photos of photos and the original prints were a bit blurry to start with (taken in low light with slow film in a fully manual SLR that I didn’t understand at the time). Nevertheless……

Saab 99E

My first Saab was a red Saab 99E, from around 1973.

It was 1998, I think, when I bought this Saab 99 from a classified ad in the local newspaper. It was being sold by a parts recycler on behalf of an elderly lady that he knew. The car was quite dirty when I first saw it but you can see, even from these blurry images, how nicely it cleaned up with a good detail. It gleamed as if it was a little Swedish fire engine.

It had a 1.85l engine and sadly, an automatic transmission. That particular combination made the little 99 as slow as a wet week but I didn’t care. It was my first Saab and a wonderful introduction to Saab’s strange way of doing things. The interior was red velour and the headrest holes you can see through the window were something out of a science-fiction book to a guy like me.

To put a little perspective on things….. I had just graduated from university, was recently married and had absolutely no access to, or knowledge of, Saab’s history. All I knew was that I loved the classic 900 but couldn’t afford one. With this 99, I finally had a Saab of my own and after a lifetime of owning some pretty basic Australian and Japanese cars, it was a whole new world.

Sadly, I didn’t have the little 99 too long. My ex damaged the car backing it out of a driveway with the door open and the resulting damage to the door and front guard made the car uneconomical to repair (especially given our dire finances at the time). If I’d known then what I know now about how rare these older 99s are, I would have tried a bit harder to get it fixed.

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Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint

With the 99 gone, I looked around for something else that would be a new experience to play with. I don’t remember where I got it from, but somehow I ended up with this Alfasud Sprint. It’s an early 1980’s model, pretty much the same as Gavin’s Sprint, which featured on this site last year.

I mentioned before that I didn’t know much about Saab’s history when I had the 99. Similarly, I didn’t know much about driving an Alfasud, either. I got frustrated with the car, feeling that it was way too slow for a car that looked so cool. Little did I know that an Alfasud only really comes alive above 4000rpm, preferably in a corner.

The Sprint presented with quite a few problems pretty early in my ownership. These issues, combined with a Saab 99Turbo popping up for sale, saw me sell the car less than a year after buying it.

You can see the 99Turbo in the photo below. The 99E might have been my first Saab, but it’s the 99turbo below that started my obsession with Saab. It’s the reason you’re reading this right now, actually.

I do miss that Sprint, though.

Saab Snippets – Time, Koenigsegg And Double Dipping

Time

It’s well past December 31, which is the time we all expected a decision from Mahindra as to whether or not they were going to invest in the ghost of Saab.

NEVS’s money was expected to run out by then and Mahindra were going to provide two tranches of funds IF the deal was going to go ahead – $5mil for January and $5mil for Febraury – to keep the ghost afloat in ‘reorganisation’ (bankruptcy protection) until the deal is finalised.

NEVS got a financial lifeline by selling tooling for spare parts to Orio, which explains why there was no urgency around the end of the year. The price paid in the deal wasn’t mentioned in the press release so the amount of time they’ve bought is unknown. It wouldn’t be too long, however.

When will Mahindra make a decision? It’d be nice to know.

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Koenigsegg V4

My mate Tompa has been speaking with Christian Von Koenigsegg about engines. Specifically, the potential for cutting a Koenigsegg V8 in half and using the resulting V4 in a passenger vehicle.

You can read the article here, at a site I hadn’t seen before called Saab Tala.

The good news is that Christian believes it’s entirely possible. And considering that Christian knows more about cars and engineering than anyone else I’ve met, I’ll take that as given. In fact, not only is it possible, but Christian estimates that a half-Koenigsegg V4 could reliably produce plenty of power.

Quote from Christian:

If [you’re] looking at a 2 litre engine with 4 cylinders with a slightly smaller turbo to get a fantastic response, we are talking about 450 hp and 500 Nm on Unleaded 95 octane.

Sounds fascinating, doesn’t it?

There’s no bad news in this story, but the $64,000 questions remain unanswered – how much would it cost? And would that cost gel with the market(s) Mahindra would pursue with Saab if they got control of the company? Are they looking to take on the Audis and BMW’s of the world?

They’d better be. Because the engine won’t be cheap and consequently, the car won’t be cheap, either.

I don’t agree with Saabtala’s point of view about the BMW/Mini 1.6 engine being a mistake. I think it would have been a great engine for Saab, as it has been for Mini. The salient point is this: That BMW/Mini engine was considered to be a very expensive choice and it’s an engine that was used across several brands and made in the hundreds of thousands of units. How much, then, for a purpose-designed V4 from one of the most expensive carmakers in the world that’d be made in the tens of thousands?

Quality has its price. Your level of comfort with that price depends on the market you’re chasing.

It’s an interesting story and I know Tompa’s going to chase it a little more. I’m keen to see what he comes up with, if only from an engineering point of view. You can build whatever Saab you like if you’ve got the money, but you’ve got to be able to sell it to someone. That’ll be the hard part – whatever path they choose.

Side note: Tompa first met Christian when I asked via SU for someone in Sweden to provide a convertible Saab for Tompa’s wedding a few years ago. Christian was the only person to respond to the request, so Tom and Carola got to drive Halldora von Koenigsegg’s car on their wedding day. Result! 🙂

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Double Dip

I remember the early days of Spyker’s ownership of Saab, with Victor Muller saying that the biggest threat to Saab’s future was a double-dip recession.

It’s interesting to ponder, then, what might have been if Spyker had access to finance and stuck it out until 2015.

Why?

Well, 2014 saw Western Europe record it’s first rise in new vehicle sales since 2009. And they’re forecast to grow in 2015, too. From Just Auto:

The US market also saw sales rise in 2014, but then the US market has been rising for a while. The US market’s recent low was also in 2009 with just 10.4 million vehicles sold. There were 16.5 million vehicles sold in 2014 and the last time the US market was that big was in 2006.

I wonder what would have happened, then, if there were no ban on Vladimir Antonov’s money (and no Antonov charges in Lithuania) and no supplier backlash in March 2011. What if all the new vehicle launches went ahead according to schedule and Saab kept making cars through 2011 and beyond? Would Saab have sold enough with the 9-4x, the new 9-5 and whatever would have happened with the 9-3 between then and now?

Such a prolonged slump was the economic situation that Victor feared the most in those early days. I wonder if ‘we’ could have survived it to prosper in 2015 and beyond?

Death In Trollhattan – Saab and Insolvency

In reaction to yesterday’s negative press about an appointment being made at bankruptcy court, NEVS managed to convince the petitioner to withdraw his claim. That’s good news.

NEVS’s anaemic PR division followed this up with a press release:

Nevs hereby clarify that the company is not insolvent. The company does not have enough liquid cash as today to pay all outstanding debt but Nevs’ assets are larger than its debt. Nevs today cannot say exactly when, but Nevs’ suppliers will get paid.

During the summer, the dialogues with the two major vehicle manufacturers have continued and developed in a positive direction. It is a thorough evaluation process that is still ongoing, and the discussions have not been finalized yet.

After the funding is secured, and that Nevs business plan is updated together with its new partners, Nevs will be able to make the decision on when the Trollhattan factory can resume its production.

The company whose representative filed a bankruptcy petition has informed Nevs today that they will withdraw the case after the information they have got regarding the ongoing dialogues.

A few quick thoughts on this:

“Nevs hereby clarify that the company is not insolvent” being followed by the words “The company does not have enough liquid cash as today to pay all outstanding debt….” is more than a little strange. It changes marginally from place to place, but in general terms, insolvency is where your debts outweigh your capacity to repay them as they fall due. It requires liquidity, not promises or claims about total assets. NEVS may claim solvency in this press release but such a claim has to stand up in court if/when they’re pressed to prove it.

Here’s a question someone in Sweden should be asking – Why doesn’t NEVS protect itself from creditors by going into Reorganisation, as Saab/SWAN did more than once a few years ago?

“Reorg”, you might remember, is the rough Swedish equivalent of a Chapter 7 11 bankruptcy in the US or ‘Voluntary Administration’ here in Australia, where the company gets some protection from creditors and can reorganise its business in order to maintain solvency and become profitable. The answer, I believe, is that if you go into Reorg you’ve got to prove to the court that you have a realistic chance of coming out of Reorg and trading successfully. NEVS’s ability to prove that would be severely limited because right now, they don’t have a finished product to sell nor a distribution network to sell that product into.

Consequently, I’ll take a stab and say that NEVS quite possibly exists right now only because of the good graces of its creditors. KJJ has already liquidated plenty of assets in China and elsewhere to keep the doors open this long and his capacity to keep doing this must be limited at this point.

And another question, on a slightly different matter….. Unless there’s going to be a three-party effort going on here – NEVS, DongFeng and Mahindra all working together – why is NEVS still in discussion with two potential partners?

This has been going on for months now and it will likely go on for many, many months more if NEVS still hasn’t got past the point of isolating one partner to deal with (if indeed one partner is the intended goal). If I were a creditor, I’d want a little more information as to exactly where things are at. I’d want a more realistic timeframe as to when I was going to get paid. If the goal is to secure a single partner/buyer/investor and NEVS is still sorting out who that might be, then I wouldn’t be planning on recovering my debt any time soon. Maybe the creditors have got that info from NEVS, but to the general market it looks like very little is happening in the way of progress – again, this is down to the anaemic PR department at NEVS.

We continue to wait and see.

Death In Trollhattan – Saab Bankruptcy Looming (again)

Scandinavian thrillers have been in vogue for the past 5 years or so, but this one’s becoming less of a thriller and more of a “why-dunnit?”. The conclusion is fairly well known to most objective observers; Saab is highly likely to be skewered and fairly soon. The only remaining questions are to do with any minor flips or twists along the way and the inevitable examination of why it happened.

My memory on the exact procedure from years ago is fuzzy, but hopefully I’m not putting anything out of context here.

Petition for Saab Bankruptcy

So what’s the latest?

Here’s the word from just-auto, which is a reliable source of news from my experience:

National Electric Vehicle Sweden says 250 production employees are at home following further struggles with short-term financing.

Staff only recently returned to the Saab-producing parent after summer holidays, but a petition filed with Swedish authorities from a supplier, today (12 August) has seen many without production work.

“The vacations ended this weekend, so when they came back we informed them [production staff] we still have things to do in the factory,” a NEVS spokesman told just-auto from Trollhattan in Western Sweden.

“So everyone comes back every Monday, but during the stop of production they stay at home and wait for new information.

“Those 250 people are being paid – they are at home with wages. The petition to the Court was today and they made a decision to have a negotiation on 8 September. It is the Court here in the area [of] Vanersborg.”

That’s a bankruptcy court they’re talking about.

So while NEVS continues to talk to two ‘prominent’ OEM’s about the company’s future – those two companies are widely believed to be Mahindra and Dongfeng – a supplier has had enough and petitioned the bankruptcy court to step in. The company that has filed this motion isn’t owed much (150,000SEK is not much at all in car company terms) but it doesn’t take much to get the ball rolling.

It should be noted that the filing was actually made by a debt-recovery company engaged by the supplier rather than the supplier itself. The CEO of the supplier company was surprised the debt recovery boys had taken this action but didn’t commit to withdrawing it. As we saw back in 2011, it only takes one to encourage a few more so even if the motion is withdrawn, others may follow.

The Likely Outcome

Back to NEVS/Saab:

The two companies [with which] we are in dialogue are fully aware of our situation. That it takes some time to complete a cooperation is a sign they are very serious.

I’ll bet they’re fully aware of the situation and I’m sure they’re quite serious. But I doubt they have the honourable intentions that NEVS is leading everyone to believe.

Trollhattan’s mayor, Paul Akerlund, remains ‘optimistic’ according to TTELA, but his statement sounds neutral-at-best, to me:

I am quite hopeful that there will be a solution in the pipeline that will be stable for the future.

And of course he’s optimistic. He might have been a former Saab guy and union guy in the past but in 2014, he’s the mayor. It’s his job to remain optimistic about his region.

Jonas Froberg from SvD has an informed and realistic view, I think:

A likely outcome is that the Dong Feng, or any other player, buy the rights to the [Phoenix] platform and that Kai Johan Jiang sells the factory to someone else – paying debts and accepting a dream shattered.

That’s where I think this is going, too.

No company is going to commit massive funds to Saab when it can let the inevitable happen and pick up the technology or property it wants for pennies on the dollar.

Why Has This Happened?

I’m far away from the action and like most of you, I’m left to read between the lines. From afar, however, I can say that any company looking to rejuvenate Saab needed two things: Plenty of money and a credible plan.

Victor Muller had one, but not the other. He had new models ready to go, an outstanding bunch of engineers that were already making progress on improving/replacing those models and a global sales pipeline that was hurting, but still alive. Things needed improvement, but that was known and it was being addressed. That’s as close to a credible plan as Saab has had in a long time. What he didn’t have was the money or the political support to get it.

NEVS – and this is only my opinion – had neither.

Converting to an all-electric fleet was always a massive gamble. Not only does it require massive resources, it needs the product to be an absolute groundbreaker in order to sell. A short history of Tesla will tell you that much.

NEVS had some good PowerPoint presentations in the beginning but time told us that the thoughts therein could not be turned into actions. The electric vehicle they promised was delayed to the point where they had to divert scarce resources into redeveloping a petrol version of the Saab 9-3 – a car they’d only ever be allowed to sell in tiny numbers because it didn’t meet regulations for selling in volume. The move to a petrol powered Saab 9-3 was the first sign that NEVS was in genuine trouble.

That’s the credible plan part.

We all know now that they don’t have the money, either. Kai Johan Jiang has made an honourable effort and continues to do so, but he couldn’t do it alone and he was let down by a Chinese partner that didn’t make good on its promise. I sincerely doubt NEVS’s long-term viability even if their Chinese partner had made good on their commitments, but they didn’t.

That’s my short theory as to why. I’ll leave it to people closer to the action to tell us the gory details in good time.

It Ain’t Over ’til It’s Over

There is a small, small chance that this could all come good. Either DongFeng or Mahindra might surprise everyone and come through with a deal that keeps a Saab presence in Trollhattan. And because I love the town and the factory, I sincerely hope that happens.

But the realist in me says we’re witnessing the final scene in a Scandinavian drama that we’ll all say would have been nice if it had a more un-Scandinavian outcome. A happy ending would be nice, for a change.

Roll credits.

Spyker Vs Saab, Victor Muller, Porsche-Porsche-Porsche and GM’s Recall

So the results from the Saab vs Spyker poll from last week – i.e……

Which car do you think we’ll see available for sale first?

The Spyker B6 Venator, or

An electric Saab?

…. were almost split down the middle. Spyker held a handy lead right from the get-go but the Saab pollsters chimed in later and the result evened out by the end.

Thanks for your participation. I’m very keen to see which one will actually be built first. Actually, I’m keen to see if either of them will be built at all.

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The article is about Spyker, but it does touch on the Saab years:

He couldn’t help but describe the experience in Biblical terms. “It was hell on Earth,” he said, taking care to emphasize every word. “The years 2010 and 2011 can only be described as hell on earth. Dante’s Inferno. I gave everything humanly possible to try and save my company. And I think a little bit more than that. And I almost killed myself in the process. It was hell.”

I can vouch for that. I’ve never seen someone work harder and the price he paid in terms of his health and his family was excessive.

It’s a good read and yes, I’m still cheering for VM to make it work.

Saab, too.

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18 new Saabs have been registered to private customers in Sweden this year.

As plenty of people have pointed out, the 9-3 was still a great car when it ceased production in 2011 and is, by all reports, still a good new car as made by NEVS today. But that’s according to the opinions of people who aren’t stumping up their own money to buy one. For those who are, the shortcomings attributable to the car’s age seem to be a stumbling block.

This path was always, always fraught with danger. A lack of engagement, a lack of feasible planning, a lack of sales and now the lack of a major investor have me very worried for our little Swedish brand.

Thanks to ctm for the sales info, via comments.

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Would you like an update on the GM Recall that will make you shudder and laugh at the same time?

I thought so. There’s a slight language warning with this one. And it goes on a little too long, but it’s still worth a look.

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Just another reason I’ll never buy a car designed and made by General Motors. (with the minor possible exception, one day, of a Saab 9-3 or 9-5 wagon).

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Some car designs we like, and some we don’t. Designers DO usually get it right, however, a point that’s only emphasised when you see their early design attempts at a particular model.

For example, here’s how the Porsche 911 might have looked…..

And here’s the concept car that spawned the Spyker C8 Laviolette:

They’re always interesting to see, but thank goodness the designers kept working on them 🙂

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And a little more Porsche, for those who like short films dedicated to old cars drifting in the snow….

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The guy featured in this film is Jeff Zwart (and I love the smile on his face in the driving shots – it’s what driving old cars is all about). He’s made films and photos of a lot of exotic cars over the years, as well as driven cars hard in various events, including Pike’s Peak.

He recently released a book about the Porsche 917 and it shows off his photography skills almost as much as it shows off the car. Delicious.

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And briefly, on my own Porsche shory…..

Parts have now arrived for my next major job – upgrading to M030 suspension. That’ll happen next month and I have a very special test drive planned to evaluate the changes 🙂

Poll: Saab vs Spyker

Time for a little light-hearted amusement……

One of my favourite sports shows has a question every week – Who would you rather be? There are two possible answers and they usually pose an upside and a downside.

e.g Who would you rather be?

Prince Charles, or
Prince Harry?

It sounds easy at first, but think about it.

One’s going to be King, probably sooner rather than later. And let’s face it, it’s good to be King. The other is loved by the people and will still have a pretty good life. But he’s unlikely to ever be the King and that’s a place in history that he’ll miss out on forever. Does history give places to likeable knock-about brothers or sons of kings? Not that often. And the Windsors are an historical bunch, let’s face it.

Upside. Downside.

This isn’t exactly a “who would you rather be?” scenario – although that would be interesting, too – but hopefully it’ll make you think just as much.

The question?

Which car do you think we’ll see available for sale first?

The Spyker B6 Venator, or
An electric Saab?

Spyker have released both the hardtop and Spyder versions of the B6 Venator in concept form. Just this week, they’ve released images of the production hardtop model. You can’t help thinking, though, that production versions might be hard to come by in the real world. When a company’s pressed to offer bonds that can be converted into cars, presumably in order to finance the actual build, then you have to wonder.

Victor Muller took a pretty big financial hit from the whole Saab affair. He’s had no luck with his court case against GM and the Swedes are still looking at his dealings from the Saab days. Victor’s the ultimate survivor, though. He’s still got Spyker and he’s managed to wrangle enough cash together to produce these new concepts. He even managed to get one sitting dockside at the Monaco GP last weekend. But has he got the cash to release them by their expected due date, in 2015?

Saab?

Well, one of their major shareholders hasn’t come through with the cash they promised. The boss has had to try and liquidate assets in China to pay the bills and he’s a few months behind. The company’s had to stop production for 4 weeks and that’s right before the usual summer break, so don’t be surprised if it turns out to be more like a 12-week break. Investors are said to be on the verge, but who’s going to invest in a crippled company when they could wait and get the bits they want at a knock-down price?

And then there’s the whole electric car thing. Are they actually close to building a viable electric vehicle for consumers? Right now they’re courting investors to complete the Phoenix platform, which makes me wonder how much work they’ve actually done on it since buying the company. They reportedly started sending electric test vehicles to China but are they ready for consumers?

I think it’s a legitimate question – which car will we see available for sale first? An electric Saab or the Spyker B6 Venator?

Have your say in the poll below:

[poll id=”21″]

Saab Hits A Financial Wall, Stops Production

For those who are wondering, it’s been quiet here because I was away for work, and bracketing that trip is the demise of my computer (which will hopefully be fixed soon). I’m actually enjoying the hiatus.

I had to get back online for this, however. My thanks to ctm for posting this press release from NEVS in comments.

A few cents worth of thoughts at the bottom…..

Status update from Nevs

National Electric Vehicle Sweden (Nevs) is preparing an extensive investment to develop a new platform on the Phoenix architecture, which will be the base for future car models. This development will be done in cooperation with other global OEMs. These collaborations involve sharing cost of development and reduced costs of components through significantly higher volumes.

Nevs has recently signed a frame agreement with a major international automotive OEM regarding the cooperation in product development of the future platform. A negotiation with another major automotive OEM is also taking place regarding part ownership. The objective is to add significant resources to the development of Saab as a global premium car brand name. The partnerships will contribute to secure Nevs with the right financial and technical support to develop new products and distribution of cars on a global basis.

Even if the long term perspective of Nevs remains very exciting and promising it is a short term cash problem.

The root cause of the current situation is that Nevs’ shareholder, Qingbo Investment Co. Ltd, has not fulfilled their contractual obligation to finance the operations.

As a consequence Nevs’ main owner National Modern energy Holdings Ltd. (NME) has since the beginning of the year decided to enter into the position as the sole financier of the company. Recently NME had to conclude that despite enormous efforts it has not been possible to capitalize its assets in China as fast as needed to support Nevs. This has resulted in a time lag between the financing from China and the need of cash to pay suppliers. As of today NME has transferred over 3 Billion SEK to Nevs and made additionally large investments in China, i.e. in the new battery factory and the technology development center.

It is important to state that the assets are significantly higher than the debt but Nevs is planning to use short term credits to cover all outstanding and near term obligations until the long term financing is secured. This is bridge solution is planned to be realized within a near future.

To further support the situation financially and give Nevs time to align the strategy with the new OEM partners Nevs will also take short term measures to reduce cost. Among the measures to be taken are a short term stop of production, which today is six cars per day, and a reduction of hired consultants.

End of press release.

OK.

A couple of points……

As many regular readers would know, I was skeptical about NEVS’s electric vehicle plans right from the beginning. I was reassured, however, by words from some former colleagues at Saab saying that Kai Johan Jiang’s companies were VERY well resourced.

I guess it just goes to show exactly how tough it can be to run a car company, especially one that you hope will be a mass producer. The costs are Massive-with-a-capital-M.

It’s a chicken-or-egg situation. People aren’t going to buy the cars if they don’t feel they’re getting value, or ongoing support. To get the costs down and build in some value, you’ve got to create economies of scale. To reach the volumes that create economies of scale, someone has to invest a metric buttload of money in order to both build and market the cars for sale on a large scale. But people aren’t going to buy the cars if……….

Saab was behind the 8-ball on that right from the beginning. Their decision to build the old 9-3 put a very tight cap on the potential size of their market because it didn’t meet safety standards for general approval in Europe.

The 9-3 decision was one that had some real short-term appeal; it was a smaller investment and meant a shorter time to market. It needed to be a success, though. Sadly, it hasn’t been a success at all. Yes, fans can judge the re-commencement of manufacturing as an achievement in itself and that’s fine and dandy when you’re future’s still full of potential. Eventually, though, you’ve got to sell some cars and make some money. Whether by lack of marketing in Sweden or market fatigue with the old 9-3, they simply haven’t sold.

Jiang was hoping Quingdao would fulfil their commitments to the investment they made in the company. I guess not. Welcome to the Chinese way, which is not exactly a new phenomenon for Saab fans.

I took a few suns worth of heat for not being an unequivocal cheerleader for a new Saab. The reason I took the cautious stance I did is because I didn’t want to encourage friends to spend their hard-earned on a product that had potential to be unsupported. Once was enough.

It’s unpalatable, but you simply have to wait for proof of sustainability in a situation like this. We all wish Saab well, but pouring money into the company is something investors have to do before they ask customers to do the same.

I hope the lads and ladies at NEVS can sort this stuff out. Everyone wants to see the Saab name continue to be associated with quality cars that have a real connection with Sweden.