Saab will continue to produce the 9-3

National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) saved Saab from bankruptcy last year and promised to debut an electric vehicle in about 18 months with the name Saab, but it can't use the griffin logo because it is also used by Scania and Saab Aerospace Group. Now plans have been changed. While the company still wants to build electric vehicles they will first resume the production of the "old" 9-3 to prepare the company, economically and industrially, for the new electric Saab.

Starting from mid-2013 you will be able to again buy a Saab 9-3 and later in the year a 9-3X, both produced in Throllhattan, Sweden. The new EV, also built in Throllhattan, will arrive in 2014, and when the production reaches the factory limit of 120.000 units/year a new factory will be constructed in China.

I don't know if building electric vehicles is the best option for a company recovering from a bankruptcy, specially if that is the main goal. In 2012 only 110.000 electric vehicles were sold in the world.

Source: es.autoblog

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Volvo will invest more in Sweden. 11 Billion!

Volvo Car Group will invest eleven billion dollars in the SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) and VEA (Volvo Engine Architecture) and half of that will be spent in Sweden in infrastructure for the new vehicle architecture and engine family.

With this Volvo pretends to achieve independence in platforms and engines and thereby not depend on other brands and products. Also pretends to share more components over all the models in the Volvo lineup to benefit from economies of scale.

SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) is a flexible, scalable product architecture that covers most of Volvo's future car models. It is a product range consisting of shared modules and scalable systems and components, all manufactured in a flexible production system. In parallel with SPA, Volvo Car Group is also developing an all-new four-cylinder fuel-efficient engine family known as VEA (Volvo Engine Architecture).

You can read the rest of the PR here

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