Car Advice
  • Home
  • »  Koenigsegg may buy Saab – update

Koenigsegg may buy Saab – update

By Alborz Fallah |

General Motors has today announced that Swedish supercar manufacturer Koenigsegg is the current front runner to buy out GM’s struggling Saab brand.

As we reported last week, Koenigsegg has been interested in Saab for some time. We suspect the reason is to have a mass production facility to build its upcoming electric car under the Saab umbrella, giving the company access to the worldwide market in the near future.

According to reports on Swedish television, Koenigsegg alongside Norwegian investors have recently signed a letter of intent to take over Saab. GM had already given up on Saab in February of this year when it put the Swedish brand into the equivalent of bankruptcy and cut ties that go back two decades.

Currently GM is undergoing a massive restructuring process which means shedding Saab, Hummer and Saturn. The old GM also gave up trying to sell its medium-duty truck business this week and announced its termination.

koenigsegg-day-1-046a

According to the Financial Times the successful buyer has an interesting contract to deal with. As part of the deal GM will provide US$500 million in assets and cash, plus production equipment for a new Saab model. GM will also leave the US$150 million of cash already in Saab’s account as is.

Koenigsegg will have to put in a similar amount of money (although reports say it could be less) and if it’s successful in turning Saab around it will pay GM back the US$500+150 million.

The electric car Koenigsegg is expected to release next year is called the Quant. A project between Koenigsegg and NLV Solar AG. The car is claimed to manage 500 kilometres on a 20 minute charge, if Koenigsegg can bring even half of that promise to the market with a new Saab model, we will see a lot more Saabs on the road in the near future!

For more information on the Quant click here.


 
  • jbot

    500km on a 20min charge? is that right??

  • Frenchie

    Yeah, thats what they’re saying Jbot.

    It seems to be a large gap between visionary an realality!

    If its true what they are saying it will go a long way for pv cell technology.

    But I think its all sales gimmick.

  • Shak

    as the article said if they can put that in a 9-3, then we’ll see 1000′s of SAABS on the road in the near future, albeit at a reasonable price.

  • Captain Mainwaring

    Different country on the opposite side of the world, but isn’t this a bit like Elfin buying Holden?

  • Alex

    I really want this deal to go through. I’m sick of every brand going to the Chinese simply because they rarely seem to do anything half interesting with all the brands they buy. This would be a good next step for Saab, I imagine Koenigsegg would do well for them.

  • Elitist

    This deal gets the Elitist seal of approval.

  • Wheelnut

    I’m sure the people at Saab will be glad to hear that Elitist… I mean they were so worried that YOU wouldn’t agree to it. Now it appears thanks to YOU their jobs are safe.

  • eh179driver

    Is this serious? In 2008 Koenigsegg sold just 18 cars worldwide, employs only 45 people and has an annual turnover of AUD15.8 million. Even with the money that GM will contribute to the deal, how on earth will this all work? Seriously, does Koenigsegg have the money and more impotantly the know how to pull this off? IMO this will end up being a disaster. They will run out of cash in no time.

  • turbin

    Anti-spam: Daewoo (part of the so-called ‘Good GM’)

    Koenigsegg is just a convenient front for majority owner Norwegian Bard Eker and his financial backers. They are apparently so well funded they are not likely to take up the Swedish Government’s loan offer. From all reports Eker and the consortium are prepared to run with SAAB in areas of performance, innovation, design, company and dealer culture, and alternative energies. Sounds like a very SAAB outcome to me.

    Google ‘Hydrolift’ to learn about his boats. Google ‘Ekergroup’ to learn more about the overall holding company and his other projects. This guy doesn’t muck around when it comes to ‘mucking around’.

  • FrugalOne

    This has gota be a joke.

    Sure they got the cash to do-the-deal, but what experience have Konieeeesssseeg have in marketing cheap/volume brand……NONE.

    Once again the only proper saving of SAAB is to join the Fiat/Chy. group, you need volume or you die

    Cheers

    F-0

  • Wizz

    And volume saved GM – once the worlds largest automaker… ?

    Not all people want to buy the same car as everybody else has.

    I would buy a SAAB if they can make a car that:
    1. Looks good
    2. Have good build quality
    3. Have parts that’s designed to last a long time
    4. Have special features (that differs from the average car)
    5. Have modern construction
    6. Made in fairly limited number
    7. Is NOT full of GM or Ford parts etc. I would rather pay more for a car if parts are exclusive to that brand/model.
    8. It must cost under 80K for a model with all the extras I need.

    It wouldn’t hurt SAAB if Koenigsegg made a SAAB racing model. A car that would cost about 200k and with GOOD performance. And in limited numbers. Maybe just 1k of each model.

    Ekes should send his designers to SAAB and work om their next model – to be released in 3-4 years time.
    If you look at the design of the boats, cars, projectors etc – you can clearly see that design is something they master.

  • eh179driver

    Turbin, I hope your right. But you know the old saying about the car industry. If you want to make a small profit, start with a huge one. You need deeeeeeeep pockets to employ 13’000 people and build cars. I hope the make a go of it. Cerebrus had deep pockets as well and look what happened there.