Rearview Mirror: Who is Kai Johan Jiang?
Update: 13: 50 clock
The man behind “National Electric Vehicle Sweden” is Kai Johan Jiang. He is the designated CEO of the electric car consortium. TTELA examined the ownership structure and found that it should also be the main shareholder of the consortium. It owns 51% through National Energy Holding, with the remaining 49% owned by Sun Invest, a Japanese venture capital firm.
Kai Johan Jiang, of whom we know that he was born 1965 and owns a Swedish passport, has worked for the Volvo Group from 1993 to 2000 and has since been active in the field of renewable energy and has been very successful. As a foreign Chinese, he can not act directly as a majority shareholder in China, he controls his companies through companies based in Hong Kong and the Virgin Islands.
Which brings him independence from the mammoth authority NDRC, as TTELA notes. Having received several awards for his successes, he would now like to buy his own car manufacturer.
In China, he runs the State Power Group, known as Dragon Power, and, more interestingly, Prudent Energy. Prudent Energy manufactures batteries that are particularly suitable for use in automobiles. In Sweden he operates the biofuel producer NBE Sweden AB.
As far as the facts. What does Kai Johan Jiang want? Packing batteries in a car and putting it on the street is in our case no art. The Saab e-power concept stands and could go into production with some modifications. A press shop, a paint shop and an assembly line. That's it. But is that enough?
There is a Saab 9-5 BioPower in my parking lot. The argument to buy - and it was the most important thing - was the Saab BioPower concept. A Saab technology that, after Turbo, was finally something new. The Saab Trionic is the best concept on the market. A piece of the future and a bridge technology away from fossil energies. I like the BioPower Saab, see the concept as meaningful and like to accept disadvantages such as a thin gas station network and smaller detours. Had the company in Trollhättan not stopped production, my wife's 9-3 would also have become a BioPower. Saab can be turbo. But doesn't have to be turbo. Saab can also be a battery.
But not only. If already Saab 2.0 with a new, fresh and green thinking, then please also Saab Hybrid, Saab BioPower and please at least a little bit turbo. Because now we come to the problem. Saab is a special offer, and by splitting the corporation into several packages, the administrators have not thought of a good idea to the end. What the investor cleverly uses. Kai Johan Jiang does not need a Power Train department and no Saab Parts AB. He wants, it seems, only to build electric cars.
He also does not need many other things, and Trollhättan's still existing Saab competence, backed by state aid for the location, will not interest him. It can not, because where are the financial muscle to come from, to build a full-range provider. The current constellation looks like small, very manageable quantities. Tesla from Sweden sends greetings.
Are there only two possibilities. Plan A or B. An industrial investor like Mahindra, or as a second choice Youngman, takes over Saab and uses existing technology. According to Mahindra, it does not look right now, and Youngman is silent on the sources. The administrators have strengthened the firewalls, and there is ghostly silence.
Plan B provides for the acquisition by NEVS. A break in Saab history, and if the facts stay as they are then nothing would be the same. For many of us that would not be enough. I'm not just talking about the community, but about the Saab world. It would be a real break!
Lennart Stahl, the CEO of Saab Parts AB in Nyköping, was asked yesterday by TT about the upcoming sale. “We will see what the sale brings. We are prepared for both variants, ”said Stahl. Not just him.
The brand should live on - jobs will be created in Trollhättan. Green energy yes. Electric car yes. Future yes please. But please not only future in the smallest niche.
Text: tom@saabblog.net
Update: Fittingly and without agreement, our Saabsunited friends wrote an article about Sanfumi Sammy Shoji. He is the man behind Sun Investment.
Hi all!
At saabsunited.com, there is a post saying that SAAB is sold, as a whole. That claims, according to TTela at least the mayor of Trollhättan.
Apparently an announcement should follow this week….
Good news? Let's hope so ...
A happy hello from Luxembourg,
Tom
I'm afraid of the worst.
Saab is to be smashed.
Packing this into packages would only be done in DE if you no longer see any hope.
The complete sale has priority here. Even with production under insolvency administrator supervision.
Since one leaves oneself so time one can only final people, one wants to smash Saab. Otherwise, that can not be explained. (Even if it's bitter.)
I suspect that too .... :-(
But the revised offer from Youngman was far too good to ignore.
Let's see it relaxed, because then we just continue our SAAB and as a third car (at Tom fifth car 😉) then comes an E-SAAB.
In retrospect, those responsible have presumably scored an own goal by splitting them into packages - at least with regard to the original goal of a complete sale. Mahindra bounces off and lures a resourceful investor. (At least as far as the previous publications show.)
I have nothing against an "electric Saab". I would probably have thought seriously about the 9-3 ePower. Only the above was a prototype.
But only to break up and take packages out of the whole, seems to me not sustainable (not to mention the financial need for the presumably long dry spell) and has little to do with the recent Swedish history. At the moment I can not imagine that the owner of the naming rights gives his name. But maybe that's not the plan, but it eventually rolls out a Jiang EV 2000 from the halls of Trollhättan (the original EV of Saab will probably go several times with this naming nose on the museum wall). Wait for how long the responsible people still open the door to speculation (like this one).
only with electric car you need a very long breath to even reasonable piece
pay to sell and then we have the problem, where does the electricity come from (except from the socket ...) when 10 - 20% of the cars are electric cars.
That's exactly how it looks like. And quantities are not likely to be reached at the current prices for corresponding batteries (VOLVO 16.000 €) foreseeable. Then the further (core) question remains, where will the electricity come from. Hard to imagine against the background of the current power debate.
E-mobility is certainly the future. But whether NEVS is now the financially strong partner who makes the best use of SAAB's potential?!?!?
Doesn't seem like that at the moment ......
NEVS would be the end of what we love about SAABs (and SAABs) - as I said, I wouldn't buy a washing machine with wheels, and if the whole world would cucumber with it…. I want a car! Well, if there should be a “green” technology that can come up with a performance similar to that which I am used to from my SAAB, please, why not.
... but we are honest, today's technologies and their current state are far from it:
electric:
no range, which the concept of the car itself calls into question - from where the many power should come then knows no one, and we need not talk about performance data.
Hybrid:
nice try, but I need no foam in the engine - what about the question of disposal (batteries)
Biofuel / alcohols:
increased consumption, performance would be ok - but honestly, food is not on the table in the tank
Hydrogen:
Well maybe, but was not pursued by the industry
… did I forget something? So none of the alternatives thought through to the end, and technically not fully developed ... why should I buy something like this? I prefer to drive around with an “oldtimer” and am not that “green” - honestly ...
... and actually I do not care if any Chinese wants to sell his fuel or his fuel - there would be enough Chinese makes, which would be upgraded by it ... if then who buys in good old Europe - questionable ...
Hydrogen is also energy intensive. Who does not know him anymore, the explosive gas test in chemistry lessons: electricity releases the hydrogen from the water.
Other methods are energy-intensive: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasserstoffherstellung
Well to the point. Only NEVS would simply be too few and would simply not take advantage of existing opportunities. There is more potential in SAAB 🙂
I'm not sure it would be that bad if Saab went to NEVS. What we consider a niche today could soon become a comprehensive market - even if it has been difficult to imagine up to now. The automotive market is in a state of upheaval, as can be seen in new concepts such as the Peugeot BB1 and the Renault Twizy: It is becoming more electric, it is becoming smaller, and mobility is being “redefined”.
Maybe it will soon be niche to be a long distance driver. If I had the choice between Mahindra, Youngman and NEVS as Saab buyers: I would choose NEVS (but possibly only because I do not have all the information).
so long,
lens affair
Only the newer innovations starting from approx. 2006 / 07 (?) Lie with GM. One reason why the 9-3 II is almost license-free. However, the old Trionic engines were sold to China. Does all this belong to BAIC ??? 🙁
The rights to BioPower, DI and Trionic are unfortunately owned by GM's licensing society.
Saab Parts is also a distributor for other companies in Sweden. After sales is profitable, why not take over? NEVS concept is not really clear. Is Saab just a hub for Europe and America?