SAAB Tag: The Spyker Youngman Connection

For the former Saab CEO Victor Muller today was one of the successful days. Youngman has signed the long-awaited contracts and is investing 10 million in the financially very limited manufacturer of exclusive sports cars. In addition, another 25 million € will flow into the new Spyker D8 project in which Youngman holds 75% of the shares.

Contract signing: Victor Muller and Pang Qingnian

The new Super SUV, actually an old and aged project that was on hold for a long time, should make the slightly wealthier part of this world happy. The sale price should be at one million US dollars, so no car for the smaller purse. Hmm. 1.000.000 dollars for a seemingly bulky car of a barely known manufacturer? The main market is China, where European luxury goods are booming. Still ambitious. But what was never ambitious and humble about Victor Muller?

Muller's SUV: Spyker D8 for 1.000.000 US Dollar

The Saab-Spyker-Youngman-Phoenix project is also taking shape. The joint venture, where the Chinese are targeting 80% of the share capital and wishing to invest, is based on a Spyker variant of the Saab Phoenix platform. As already announced, the final product should be more luxurious and expensive than the original Saab variant. Where and when the joint product of Spyker and Youngman is supposed to come off the production line is still uncertain. Both China and a European location are mentioned.

Victor Muller himself has recently been a frequent guest in Trollhättan. There, as we know, an automobile plant is vacant waiting for employment. Serious to be expected, however, is pure speculation.

In addition, Spyker will transfer all naming rights to a new company owned by 75% of the Chinese, and will also grant naming licenses for the new projects. Youngman is hereby taking a strategic step further and breaking away from the Lotus dependency. Spyker is a Chinese-owned brand name that's what Youngman has always wanted.

The whole package sounds good and looks like a classic win-win situation. If there were not yet the lack of blessing of the business by the authorities in Beijing. A situation that will be familiar to most readers.

There was still the 3 billion US dollar lawsuit from Spyker against the US auto giant GM. General Motors wants to dismiss the lawsuit and Spyker had submitted new papers to substantiate the lawsuit. Now the Michigan court has a hearing for the 19. February 2013 set.

In a few years, two different investors could produce products based on the same technology. One product could appear under the “Saab” brand, the other under the “Spyker” label. Muller and his activities and dreams will stay with us for quite a while. There is for sure. But are we really still interested in Muller?

Text: tom@saabblog.net

Picture: Spyker

 

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Frank Urban
11 years earlier

Hallo,

So the question was if we are interested VM. A clear yes, but hello! And how !

Just as I'm interested in the designers, the managers and fans who believed in the Saab Spirit are also interesting. The recent times are of course not historical and therefore have more steps but I find that super interesting.

Likewise, you might find the work of the administrators, the platforms etc. not worth reporting - which I definitely do not share.

So keep it up and report

xlx
xlx
11 years earlier

At VM I always had this “there things happen behind the curtain” feeling. Still, I liked his attempt to restart Saab. And I like the Spyker SUV. It is different from what you see on the street and will be Spyker style. Is ok

phibo
phibo
11 years earlier

As an entrepreneur, I find Victor Muller a fascinating personality, even if he failed with the plan to buy SAAB GM and then pay with shares in the company he bought. Not really surprising, also because the GM influence in the new company was too great and Spyker / SWAN too weak financially to completely break free from the GM grip. Nevertheless, I find it fascinating how he is not impressed by such setbacks and is now rebuilding Spyker - hopefully with a better outcome.

By the way, I don't like the D8 SUV either ... but I really would have liked to see the C-XII, or the C-VII Aileron. Those were a lot nicer designs ...

The Saab'ler
The Saab'ler
11 years earlier

…not really; Pseudo-luxury models for ...
and beautiful is something else.
This SUV- front Porsche, behind Lotus and in
the middle upset.
it had to be that way.
Saabige greetings from Thuringia

Saabfan
Saabfan
11 years earlier
Reply to  The Saab'ler

…… and somewhere with the missing BMW units… ..