Swede dreams: Saab to become electric car maker

Published on 14/06/2012 00:00

Saab will become a specialist electric car maker after being rescued from insolvency by an Asian consortium that plans to match Swedish car design with Japanese technology.

The main assets of the Swedish firm, which went bankrupt in December, were sold yesterday for an undisclosed sum.

The buyer, National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), is a joint venture set up to bid for Saab by a Hong Kong-based clean energy specialist and a Japanese investment group.

NEVS said it planned to import electric technology from Japan to produce electric cars at Saab’s manufacturing plant in Trollhattan. The cars will be based on the 9-3 model, pictured, as rights to the larger 9-5 design are owned separately and were not sold as part of the package.

The firm said it would initially focus on the Chinese market, but has wider plans to roll its electric cars out globally in the long-term.

DOMINIC JEFF