News from the Saabvägen 5
Saabvägen in Trollhättan is a very special address for us fans. It stands for the home of Saab and for a long and exciting automotive tradition. Anyone who printed Saabvägen number 5 on their business card used to work for Saab Automobile. Today for NEVS.
Fans rarely, in fact almost never, manage to get onto a manufacturer's payroll. But there are also exceptions. Michèl Annink moved to NEVS a good year ago after working at Microsoft and Salesforce. As Senior Director Mobility Services and Customer Journeys, he should help shape the future of NEVS.
A Saab fan in the Saabvägen 5
Michèl is Saab fan through and through. Infected with the love of the brand, he was in his early years by the Saab 99 Turbo of a neighbor. Today, he owns an impressive collection of rare vehicles from Saab, including a rare 9-5 NG sports trolley and an 9-4x. With his years of career in IT and the Saab background, he was probably the best choice for an exciting task.
Our readers will certainly remember Michèl as the author of the international pages on the blog. With the start of his work at NEVS a writing on the blog was no longer possible, and on 15. February 2016 adopted he himself from the blog project.
The special relationship remained, however, and I found it exciting that a Saab fan would help shape the future of mobility in the Saabvägen 5. For Michèl Annink began with his dream job at NEVS a committed life, which should take place between Trollhattan, Beijing and Stockholm. The months went by, and the blog team was able to follow the development in the Saabvägen 5. NEVS and Michèl Annink were repeatedly in the press and in lectures. His vision of the future of mobility became an issue.
In the summer, Saab fans were received at the factory on their pre-tour of the IntSaab 2016. Delegations from Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden got an insight into the work of NEVS. And NEVS opened the secret design studios. The gratifying, new transparency, and also our visit to the October 2016 in the former Saab plant, I expect, among other things, the commitment of Michèl Annink.
Michèl Annink left NEVS
At some point it calmed down, and in November 2016 I wrote Michèl an email asking whether his dream job was still making him happy. I got no answer. Then at Christmas came the news that they would part ways. The ideas about the future of mobility, he wrote to me, were too different. And the decision to leave NEVS was not an easy one for him.
At the end of January Michèl Annink left the Saabvägen number 5. What I found very regrettable, because I like these stories when people with a great passion as lateral entrants are allowed to shape the future of a brand.
Michèl left NEVS. Not a good sign from my point of view.
I wish him a good new start to his career and continue to have fun with his SÄÄBEN!
Michèl can now write for the blog again…. 😉
Hope we could meet each other again. Maybe the next Pilots Wanted?
I wish Michèl but now much success in his next job.
Thank God I'm not the only one who thinks like that ...
Can someone tell me what PSA wants with Opel?
Very interesting PSA and Opel. With Saab for no profit.All almost death. Off the Trump GM. New models come and no dog is interested in diene technology. This will be the new car. Love serves Classics like a dog.
It will continue as it always has: one merges, concentrates development and production, exposes employees and tries to gain a profit with the existing market shares. Yes, there is an oversupply of vehicles in Europe, that is, in plain English, too many brands. I see it differently: many brands push the development, secure jobs and guarantee acceptable prices. as well as individual vehicle solutions and no (SORRY) trash with a unitary look from the assembly line. Alone with the announcement of the sales intentions, OPEL has already done considerable damage on the way to recovery. The sales figures will show that. Obviously not even GM knows what the numerous OPEL patents and developments are, from which the parent company profits.
Carlos Tavares (head of the PSA group) would still have the opportunity to ask SAAB AB about the SAAB trademark rights. A merger with NEVS would also be conceivable under his aegis (keyword: electromobility) - in both cases, with a little skill, the return of SAAB premium vehicles - of course also under the name SAAB - could be managed.
NEVS itself has no access to the name, nor does it announce the SAAB level we know about in the future production of automobiles.
The latter may also have triggered the departure of Michél at NEVS.
Tomorrow's article on the blog touches on the edge of the topic. Look in here
I think Opel / PSA may be an issue here on the SAAB blog as well.
Old car brands disappear, new car brands emerge and new alliances.
All 3 (Opel, Citroën and Peugeot) sell in the small and mid-range segment, so I don't understand PSA's strategy ...
Attention reverie !!!
Instead of tying Opel PSA SAAB
should revive because the PSA Group in the upper segment does not really have anything to offer.
Maybe Opel should be built into a premium brand. At least it would be an interesting project. Audi would not have been on the agenda as a premium manufacturer in the 1970s and 1980s. Okay - the term premium did not yet exist in this context. But you probably know what I mean.
You probably think of the Audi Polo (Audi 50)?
But still, I think that Opel will certainly not build a premium brand.
The way would be very long. It would take a lot like Audi 20 years. So far today no manager thinks anymore.
It would also be far from French to choose a German brand for such a project.
A pity! I wish Michèl all the best for his future and, of course, in his new job which he has certainly already started. Some more details about the reasons would be interesting. But of course it is understandable if he can not talk about it and wants it.
Michèl could write again for Saabblog. How about?
Well then the way back as an author for the Saabblog is yes again free
Unfortunately, a loss for NEVS and less SAAB Spirit in the Saabvägen 5.
OFT: Am I the only one who deals with the Opel takeover?
After all, a bit of SAAB is also in one or the other Opel.
There is so much talk of DNA here and it is tracked in all possible (and impossible) angles and more or less of it is found all over the world ...
I do not know what to think. But that GM disappears completely from Europe I like it a lot!
If only PSA had taken over Opel and SAAB together, at the same time and, above all, in good time ...
License problems (9-5 NG) would not have given such a comprehensive acquisition probably.
Okay, that's a lot. The train left a long time. And yet and even if I can't grasp it myself, I find that the late takeover of the Rüsselsheim-based company has somehow and something to do with SAAB ...
What does the blogger think? What the community?
The blogger is unsure for days if you should make it the topic
I think that this topic would be worth a look beyond the famous box. And if PSA is ever present, a premium brand is missing in PSA. As is currently trying to establish DS as such, but this does not work.
As well as. different can also be defined by ugly ...
And without a platform?
Whether positive or not! There is a connection. Opel was battered by GM similar to SAAB. Opel is said to have only made losses on paper for tens of years. I can hardly believe that! It is clear that if you have to pay a lot of money to the parent company even though it would be needed for their own development, any balance can be expected bad. Why was Opel and SAAB not allowed to sell in the Chinese market? Because of GM political reasons only the US scrap could be offered there. All the news that revolves around Opel is a painful reminder to SAAB.
Apart from that, many of the later SAAB models have the same technical basis as Opel.
With any Insignia station wagon that I see anywhere, I think YOU should have been a new 9-5 SC!
The chrome strip on the tailgate with its Opel propeller, designed as a single-engine “airplane”, is always an open mockery of SAAB.
But that's only because of my GM aversions ...
Ultimately, both daughters are victims of their raven parents, are fellow sufferers and the fate of each other's sister innocent.
May the survivors come into better hands. Without GM, it can only get better.
For me it's the same! With the Insignia station wagon I also always see a bit of SAAB 95 II SC
The topic was already on the table. I would have hoped for a sale of this kind as well, because then Saab could have continued to benefit from the standard components and resources, but would not have been such a tiny appendage to GM. But now this is only historical.
It sounds like NEVS future looks different than what a Saab fan would like. Since most, certainly Michèl, should be open to the idea of electric cars, one has to assume that it hooks somewhere else. Individual mobility adé, instead of supplying car rental companies and authorities ?!
Michèl is a fan of electric cars and connected mobility. That was certainly not the point. His decision will have a lot to do with the increasing focus on the Chinese market.
what then yes authorities and car rental companies would be.
Again a piece of relationship eroded. as time is going by.
That's a shame. I liked to read his articles on the blog and wish him good luck with NEVS. His departure is not a motivating signal.