That was 2015
More open questions than answers, fractions, fun, surprises. That was the year 2015 from Saab's point of view ... more interesting than expected - with excitement for the next 12 months. A brand that seems indestructible and a community that just wants one thing: drive a Saab!
Saab fun 2015.
Things can be so simple. What do you do if you don't get a new car? You build your own! And that was the craziest, but also the most consistent idea of 2015: Markus Lafrentz and his Saab 9000 SC project. It was so perfect that the 9000 station wagon could be mistaken for a production vehicle. At the Saab Festival in Trollhättan and the pre-tour from Kiel to Sweden, his Saab was the star.
The 9000 SC was a highlight in the Saab 9000 anniversary year. With the Anna project, we have written the 9000 back to the present and many fans rediscovered the first big Saab.
2015, that was also the year of the Saab community. Saab meet almost every weekend between Rügen and Berchtesgaden. The brand is pulsating, fascinated. There is no end in sight. The new year continues. If you like, you can spend your free time with Saab friends and with the fascinating vehicles from Trollhättan.
Saab fans 2015.
Saab is fun. Maybe because the vehicles are so pithy analog. Or, because Saab has given the world such ingenious turbo engines. Definitely, because you get to know people who have a lot of fun with Saab. A german-swedish couple impressed me a lot this year.
Marcus and Manuela Bergfeldt were always there where you can enjoy the vehicles from Västragötland. They gave us great reports on the Intsaab 2015 in Norway, drove a crazy pre-tour through half of Europe. The two are sympathetic, always in a good mood. For me they were the Saab couple of the year 2015, representing many other fans who keep Saab alive.
We've gotten used to the fact that Saab fans fill their brand with life, no marketing department or manufacturer in the background act. We have become self-sufficient with the years. That could have consequences for the future.
Break 2015.
Saab drivers are sensitive. No other brand has had so many breaks. There are 2-stroke fans for whom reaching for the 4-stroke was treason. The Saab-Scania faction or fans who consider the 900 I to be the purest of all Saabs. Its engine also carries English genes. Then there are hatchbacks, people who reject GM, for whom a 9000 is a Fiat, and so on.
In a few years we could remember another break. As the rifts between the old factions disappear, Saab enthusiasts move closer together, a new break can be felt. The connection to what is going on in Trollhättan is disappearing. I can see it in how often an article is read, and I can feel it in comments and emails.
Indifference arises. Due to the apparent focus on electric cars and the cold shoulder that NEVS repeatedly shows Europeans. Saab is what we drive, what we screw on, what is on our doorstep. Should it be the case that somebody wants to repair this break at some point, he would find himself in a difficult position.
Surprise 2015.
Which would have landed us at NEVS. For me in 2015 it was more a chronicler's duty than a pleasure to report on it. I no longer had NEVS on the bill, and wherever possible I had avoided articles about investors.
NEVS delivered the surprise 2015. End of the reconstruction, restart in the Swedish summer. Entry of further partners, strengthening of the financial basis. During the festival great hospitality for the international Saab community. And, you have to admit, without the open house in Stallbacka the festival would not have been what it has become.
Shortly before the end of the year a bang. Electric car for China 2017, 4 new models 2018. Press shop and painting line in Trollhättan should run 2016.
The development surprised. She made experienced commentators in the short term helpless. The leading Swedish magazines fluctuated between respect, disbelief and caution. Respect for Kai Johan Jiang, who persistently pursues goals. He has raised a median 3 million euro amount for his investment in shareholders. Disbelief because no one can understand the business model to 100%. Push body in Trollhättan, shipping to China, 2017 introduce a 15 years old body design as electric car?
With Chinese eyes, development makes sense. In the metropolitan areas, the administration enforces a huge market for electric cars until 2020. NEVS will only be there if you follow a tight schedule. In 18 months, shareholders and partners are anticipating the sprint through pre-series licensing to finished product. Trollhättan bodies are the minor problem until the new plant in China is up and running.
NEVS has a new headquarters in Beijing, and a few days ago they gave journalists a first look at the 2017er EV. You can see light at the end of the tunnel and benefit from the Nimbus Saab. Without the reputation of the Swedish brand, without their lettering on the stationery and homepage, one would have no chance. Now it's time to deliver. The coming months will be a big challenge for the Chinese investment in Trollhättan.
Open questions 2016
What does the development mean for the location Sweden? Long term jobs in Sweden, or primarily new jobs in China? How Swedish is NEVS anyway?
And will investors like 2016, will they follow in the footsteps of Saab? Or will we care less and continue to focus on our rolling cultural heritage from Trollhättan? I dare not forecast.
Maybe we should lean back relaxed at the turn of the year and the Focus read. He wrote in the last few days about old traditional brands, the 2016 could come back. Besides Wiesmann, Alpine, Horex and others, Saab is also on the list. The brand that would probably survive a nuclear war ... Macabre friendly formulated.
Nice prospects for 2016…
Also from me to all blog readers the best wishes for the new year. But I would not call the cause of the break just another simple break. NEVS has lost his chance at the beginning to be able to follow in Saab. You have the name usage rights completely rightly deprived. Saab AB announced in autumn that they are unwilling to re-use the name for use and has denied negotiations with NEVS. NEVS, with its focus on EXCLUSIVELY electric cars and its focus on China, has nothing to do with Saab Automobile's past tradition, and, as it seems, has nothing to do with the legacy Saab races that have been practiced so far. NEVS does not carry Saab in the name, has no rights to the name Saab and currently uses only a few shreds of former Saab technology. This and the fact that NEVS works in the same premises as the former Saab Automobile AB is the only thing NEVS still has to do with Saab. I am happy when NEVS is finally getting in gear and the people in and around Trollhättan are finding a professional future there again. But I'm very much in favor of making this new company a name for itself. Man (at least I) does not buy a car just because a certain name on it, but because the product fits. For me, the company has NEVS at least in their current orientation, even in the long run, nothing in the program. Even if Saab would not stand on it. So for me, not another break, because Saab works with Fiat or many parts from any group shelves are used, but the break par excellence because Saab Automobile AB no longer exists and NEVS is a new company that has nothing to do with Saab.
You can only fully agree with that. At NEVS, Chinese cook their stuff, the management in Sweden is just staffage. With Saab, or what Saab once was, this has nothing to do anymore. Even if you could use the name after all, only China technology with Saab Badge would come to the fore.
With cheap EVs from China, a factory in Sweden, one wants to score in the medium term on the European market. That's the strategy behind it and with the Saab logo you want to upgrade the crap. The break is never to kitten, as clumsy as the Chinese in Europe act so far, see MG and the only exception is still (!) Volvo, that will not matter anyway.
A few years ago you heard from the chairman of SAAB AB, Mr. Buskhe, that it would be very positive and future-oriented if electric cars were to come out of the factory in Trollhättan in the future - there were no obstacles to naming rights. Problems only arose when NEVS started wrongly - the naming rights were initially withdrawn. However, contrary to some allegations, there has not yet been any evidence that this should remain so in the long term.
To deny this for the future really well made vehicles would, in my view, also unfavorable for all involved.
The assumption that only a few scraps of former SAAB technology are used at NEVS is probably not true - the new series will be based in particular on Phoenix technology (verifiably developed by SAAB engineers).
Where should the advantage lie if the SAAB emblem can no longer be used and thus difficulties in the later marketing of probably good quality and even advanced vehicles would occur?
I join in the thanks and the good wishes.
But where do the great blue photos come from? Is this about an Aero X made of ice? Very cool!
Yes, an Aero X sculpture made of ice. Saab Ice Hotel Event 2008.
Thanks for the summary! As always very interesting and in a nutshell.
All a healthy and successful 2016!
In 2015 I bought my fourth Saab, but sold the 996 Carrera 4S…. I'm pretty much the only one who sold a Porsche and then bought a Saab! And I feel really good about it! Have a good trip in 2016!
Hello Hans, I have to disappoint you unfortunately
Have kept a Saab 9-3 convertible and sold for a Porsche Spyder special model.
Comment from a Porsche fan who would never drive a Saab ”… I can understand it. You can buy a new Porsche every day… ”That says it all.
You and all Saab friends a nice and successful new 2016.
Is absolutely true. Porsches is new or as a classic in a huge selection. Finding a Saab that meets the requirements of the equipment and the condition is a big challenge! A happy new year also from my side.
93er SC, XWD, 2.0T with HP on 240 PS, built in 2010, 49000km, with automatic, with premium leather, with HP carbon applications, with Bose sound, with HP exhaust, oh, could I have resisted there ?? No, definitely not!
Jiang & Co. and SAAB AB on the other hand still don't seem to have come to an agreement because of the trademark rights for NEVS - how else can you explain that the first EV for China do not immediately bear the name SAAB. It would be much more skillful for Sweden and actually everyone involved in it if the name SAAB were used when restarting.
The vehicles without a corresponding emblem will certainly find buyers - but it would be a much more difficult start and everything would be much more tedious.
Hello Tom, hello Mark, I also say “THANK YOU” for the many saabige and very passionately written reports. A happy new year to all Saab friends and all the best for a hopefully healthy and successful year 2016, although personally I cannot feel anything for NEVS. Keep it up!!!!!!
As always great and written emotionally. Thanks Tom.
You, your family, Mark and family and all Saab friends a slap and all the best for 2016.
Let's not give up hope.
Electric cars are a totally emotionless thing. As exciting as Win10. I drive daily eGolf and i3 professionally in the company fleet of a regional service provider and am pleased to be allowed to climb into the 9-3 at the end of the day. So I do not care about NEVS, the more important the blog is.
All SAAB fans and all those who make the blog a thrusty start to the year 2016!
Thank you for the review of the year
We wish all SAAB pilots and the blog team a good and healthy start to the year 2016 !!!
Thanks for the “annual summary” from the SAAB fan point of view.
Yes, the break is there ... NEVS ... ??? There is no emotion. 🙁
Nevertheless, I am looking forward to exciting SAAB info in 2016!
All SAAB readers and SAAB users a happy new year and a healthy 2016!
Hopefully the picture of the NEVS electric car does not show the final version ... the grill looks scary.
All a Happy New Year and big thanks to the bloggers for their work.
The grill is scary ... no question about it. Whether it is the series or not is unclear. Just like the question under which brand name NEVS will sell the EV in China. It only seems clear that it will not be called Saab.
That should be a bit difficult. Electric cars have only a very small cooling requirement, and do not need a grill for air supply. Therefore, the design has to be completely changed, which is difficult for an existing model, as well as viewing habits seems to contradict. Even Tesla has such a black plate, which is a reminder of the grill.
But the part has to go, because it's an air brake, and you can not afford that with an electric car.
Thanks for the review and the news. 2016 will be exciting, or electric ?? Anyway, make a good start to the bloggers and all SAAB drivers in 2016!