SAAB’S PRODUCTION LINES IN TROLLHATTAN FACTORY IS FINALLY LIQUIDATED
Photo: The drive
The Saab we knew and loved as a cute and quirky car brand died in 2011. Since then there have been a few gasps of hope for its return, but nothing serious has ever materialized. Today we have a new line item for the Swedish automaker’s post-mortem history: The Trollhättan Saab factory’s presses and manufacturing equipment are for sale. Anybody want to try and start stamping out 9-3s again?
Saab, the company, is still very much alive. It employs about 22,000 people selling fighter jets, weapon systems, and other tools of war. Saab the automaker has had a rougher ride. “It’s a really brilliant brand. It’s probably one of the biggest brand mismanagement stories in the history of the automotive industry,” said business analyst Tim Urquhart back in 2010 when the company was collapsing.
As most car nerds know, Saab was fully bought by General Motors in 2000—GM had had a major stake since 1989. Though the car company completely flatlined in 2011, the GM acquisition is when Saab stopped being Saab. Spyker, a small Dutch brand you might recognize from its exceptionally eccentric supercars, bought Saab in 2010 and, sadly, only presided over its ultimate demise. In 2012 it tried to sue GM for screwing them over by intentionally bankrupting Saab but was not successful. Spyker itself went bankrupt just a couple of years later.
Saab Automobiles got scooped up by a Chinese-Swedish investment group called NEVS (for National Electric Vehicle Sweden), and in 2013 it looked like the assembly lines were going to start cranking out 9-3s again. There was a brief almost-revival, and a tiny batch of super cool 9-5 Sport Combi models were made but serious production was never achieved. NEVS got as far as showing off some prototypes and promising to put cars on the road by 2018, but … no. Actually, there was one (1) new Saab sold in 2018—a 2011 model-year diesel, manual, 9-3 station wagon that somehow ended up at a dealership in Italy.
