Screws instead of writing
Toolbox or Mac Book Pro? Old Saab or NEVS? The weekend was about the decision to write a long article about NEVS or to screw on the Saabs. Not all decisions are that easy to make. Screws was preferred, writing was canceled. And there are reasons.
The location in Trollhättan adapts to the season. It doesn't really get light in Sweden. The shades of gray dominate. Much of what happens on the periphery remains out of focus ... like the situation around NEVS. The options dominate. Sale to a majority shareholder, cooperation with a development partner, contract manufacturing or complete vehicle development for an OEM. A clear line - not recognizable. Except that NEVS wants to leave the reconstruction with all its power and that funds for a business operation are to be ready for the summer, nothing is secured.
Like the barely manageable number of actors who prefer to stay in the shade. An investor from India, a partner from China. Another OEM, a Chinese city that is surprisingly entering the stage, a Chinese bank. Somewhere in between: the Saab AB, the Wallenbergs, the politics. The blur does not show all players. There is one more European and one Japanese manufacturer showing interest. Stig larssonIf he were alive, he would be pleased with this fabric of the royal class.
I could write a long article that would end up getting no one any further. There is no really good, reliable information about what is going on in the background. What is officially said is used to instrumentalize the media. Visions of a great future, while the train has long left the platform. The only difference is that nobody wants to have noticed it by those who stayed behind. The time is too good for that.
There is also another reason: I am more than tired to deal with it. Some readers may feel the same way. Among all the options that NEVS thinks they have and that could all have been soap bubbles in the end, Saab is just one option among many. Not enough for me to feed the blog with it. Perhaps one should keep a quote from Victor Muller in mind, who said that the NEVS business model would not open up to him. He said that three years ago, and he seems to have been right.
Screwing old cars, on the other hand, is an honest thing. At the end of the day you have black fingers and the smell of old oil in your nose. But you have a good feeling about it. The knowledge of having achieved something and brought the old Swedes a little further towards approval. Even if a second point caught my eye when solving one problem, which should actually be done better ...
I'll stick with it for the next few days ... screwing. And just wait and see how the situation develops much further north.
The readers and the blog have the advantage that Michèl is on board. While I flee to the screwdriver hobby, he stays in direct contact with NEVS. He already had everything worth knowing in his a few days ago Articles summarized and added an update on Friday. Michèl is close to the action and will continue to provide us with the necessary updates in the next few days. An important date will be February 26th. On this day the creditors deliberate - afterwards the court has the floor. The NEVS lawyers have already submitted the necessary data.
Perhaps a company with the awkward name “National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB” will leave the reconstruction zone and some normality will return to the Stallbacka industrial area. The whole thing doesn't necessarily have to do with Saab, the possible future and a comeback ...
Volvo understands what drivers want. Unfortunately not Saab. All that remains is the maintenance of the two old town ...
Screws! Chris Rea “You're Not A Number” (“you got grease on your fingers, oil on your face, happy completely,….”) From the album “Auberge” goes well with it. I will hear again from April 01st, when our 901 S Cabrio can be back on the road!
NEVS is like Greece, hopeless and you can not hear it anymore!
That's exactly what I wanted to comment on
Hello Tom!
How well I can understand you:
I also used the weekend to screw, got black fingers, inhaled the smell of oil and gasoline and got a bump on my nose….
Sometimes you should expect that if you push a wrench into the ground with all your strength in a stooped position to loosen a screw connection, it could suddenly loosen! And then you should not necessarily be with your face just over the edge of the body ... otherwise you will hit it bluntly ... 😉 *** OUCH ***
A BLOGGER NAME OVE
There is nothing good, unless you do it. You can't buy. Whoever wants to see SAAB on the street has to screw (or let screw). Full understanding. In addition, you can then report on the result ...
Well expressed 😉
Just for information: The latest edition of Die Welt am Sonntag had a great story about Apple's possibly planned i-car. Among several other names - very marginal and very speculative - that of Saab also fell. . .
Something is in my opinion quite wishful thinking of some car fans. Can not imagine that Apple would introduce a sub-brand.
I do not think so either. If, they would take over the work and hopefully the people. But how that thing is called nu, I would not care. The team is important; See Bentley.
Besides, Apple is at least one company that could tear it. These are not amateurs, and even big projects can be done there. Besides, they certainly have more engineers who have a clue about batteries and electrical engineering than NEVS. And money? Yes mei, 2 billion for the development of the car, 0.5 billion for the plant, 1. Billion for advertising and dealer network, and for me 5 billion for new battery chemistry / manufacturing, which is then used in Macs and iPhones: sum of ridiculous 8.5 billion, or 4.7% of Apple's current cash reserves.
Allegedly, Apple builds up a team of up to 1000 employees, that's something. Maybe you need a European factory, would be good for Sweden if you were in the euro zone. The Mirror wrote today about the Apple Car, some designers expressed their expectation.
NEVS is taboo for me. Interestingly, however, I always find the (scattered?) Info that there was a European interested parties. Who could that be?
I like to know it, too. On the other hand ...
If there were really serious prospects, there would probably be (new) SAABs. I fear and believe VM and the Swedish socialized Chinese, whose name I forgot again, were already about everything in readiness and potential.
Although in the past you almost always had to buy a “rat tail”. This time it's about NEVS. If NEVS disappears from the scene and a completely new beginning is possible, I think it is anything but impossible that there could be European interested parties ...
It is exactly like that. Only goes out of bankruptcy, otherwise not.
But we already had at least one bankruptcy ...
Bankrupt…
Please keep in mind that Kai Johan Jiang, at least in the recent past, had to provide the court with evidence of who is the negotiating partner in connection with the so-called reconstruction - at least the Mahindra Group has become publicly visible (albeit unintentionally).
In the case of the now rumored Japanese company, my guess is Toyota. This group had already become active in SAAB years ago - maybe more actions will follow now.
After the VM bankruptcy, the bankruptcy lawyers also spoke of a number of possible new investors who are showing interest. VM and Jiang are possibly mistakes (VM by GM and Jiang by the lawyers) but certainly not the only interested parties with willingness and potential - neither in the past nor in the current situation.
The name Mahindra does not appear anywhere, even in the papers. It is always only from OEM A and B the speech.
It is also clear to me that GM was not (could have) been interested in a success. That would have been very, very embarrassing for the management ...
But where were the great and serious potentates when Kai Johan Jiiang won the bid?
There are several (unconfirmed) conspiracy theories in this world. And if they only cover up ineptitude. Many consider it plausible or even probable. Even those that involve worse than just incompetence.
Be that as it may, a financially strong, internationally operating automobile company based in Europe, which is said to have silently jammed its tail in front of Jiang and a few lawyers and now wants to get involved, is not one of what I can imagine. And that was the talk of ...
(see SaabFan, 23, FEBRUARY 2015 TO 12: 41 PM)
While we're at it, I don't believe in a future with Japanese or Indian investors either. But time will clear that up ...
Hello Tom! Absolutely understandable, your decision. Too bad you do not like to write about Volvo.
The topic Volvo would be too hard for the blog. Last week I received Volvo's invitation to the international online press conference on autonomous driving.
Of course, I took the opportunity to look over the garden fence. For me, as a Saab person, extremely frustrating. While NEVS is barely able to screw a couple of batteries to a 9-3, the future is rocking in Gothenburg. It's unbelievable what's going on there ...
My Saab heart is bleeding, but hats off. Volvo is currently doing well, but for the blog ???
I want to hear from NEVS again only when everything, but really everything is resolved. Thank you!
Did you do right. I would rather have opted for screws instead of business news.
Is probably a smart decision. I can not hear the name NEVS for a long time