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Saab

Saab: Back From the Dead

December 2, 2013 by admin Leave a Comment

Mark Dec. 2, 2013, on your calendars and save the date for posterity. Especially if you are a Saab fan.

Today marks the restart of Saab 9-3 production, an entry-level luxury sedan last produced in April 2011. Saab, then under control of Spyker NV, filed bankruptcy in Dec. 2011. At that time and for months to come it appeared that we had seen the last new vehicles from Sweden’s second largest car manufacturer after Volvo.

Saab Resumes Production

Kai Johan Jing -- Saab

NEVS founder and owner, Kai Johan Jiang.

Well, Saab is back from the dead, and it will be marking its resurrection by holding a 1 p.m. (local time) press conference at its manufacturing plant in Trollhättan. On hand will be National Electric Vehicle Sweden founder and owner, Kai Johan Jiang, and NEVS president Mattias Bergman. NEVS is the latest owner of Saab, having purchased the company summer 2012, pulling it out of bankruptcy.

Following the press conference the first car, a Saab 9-3 Aero Sedan, will roll off the assembly line with photo and interview sessions following. The sedan continues where it left off, sporting a design introduced in 2003.

One important difference for 2014 is that its Griffin logo has been replaced, with the letters SAAB in caps appearing alone. NEVS was unable to secure the rights to the previous logo, owned by the Saab Group, a Swedish aerospace and defense company that founded Saab Automobiles.


See Also — Electrify This: Toyota Opens Vehicle Patents to Advance Global Electrification


Asian Ownership and Technology

The new Saab has a decidedly Asian influence with its parent company, NEVS, itself 78 percent owned by National Modern Energy Holdings Ltd. NME is based in Hong Kong and is a subsidiary of China Dragon Base Holdings. The remaining 22 percent share is held by Qingdao Qingbo Investment Co Ltd., a subsidiary of the city of Qingdao in eastern China.

Though the first Saab produced will be a gasoline-powered model, vehicle electrification is also in its future. NEVS’ sister company, Beijing National Battery Technology, operates an electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in Beijing. The company uses what it calls “Japanese advanced technology” to produce highly dense batteries and plans to build EV Saabs in China for domestic consumption beginning in 2014.

New Sales Network

NEVS will have its work cut out for itself as it seeks to rebuild its European sales network. US sales are a possibility, but only after the company has reestablished itself in Europe and organized its Chinese network.

Dutch sport car maker Spyker NV saw its $3 billion lawsuit against GM tossed by a US judge last June. Spyker accused GM of attempting to bankrupt the automaker and for blocking a deal to sell Saab to a Chinese rival. However, the judge sided with GM, citing a clause in GM’s agreement with Spyker that it had the right to prevent ownership change.


See Also — Buick Sets Sales Record Again

Photos courtesy of National Electric Vehicle Sweden.

Filed Under: Automotive News Tagged With: China, ELECTRIC VEHICLE, GM, Kai Johan Jiang, National Electric Vehicles Sweden, Saab, Spyker

Book Review — Car Guys vs. Bean Counters

June 24, 2011 by admin 1 Comment

Former GM vice-chairman offers an insider’s look at a once proud industry.

Bob Lutz is one of the most colorful, if not controversial figures in the automotive industry today. Although he officially retired from General Motors in 2010, ending a 47-year automotive career that also began with GM and included stints at BMW, Ford and Chrysler, Lutz is now a consultant as well as an author, having published two books including his recently released “Car Guys v. Bean Counters.” This book, published in 2011, takes a look at GM’s rise and fall, but with an eye toward the future – something that Lutz sees as promising for one of the largest automakers in the world.

Maximum Bob

“Car Guys” gives the reader insight into the man whose influence in this important industry is often misunderstood, although the nickname “Maximum Bob” suits him well. This term accurately describes a man who goes full throttle, telling you exactly what he likes or dislikes, ignoring social etiquette and often shaking established, if not erroneous beliefs, including calling global warming “a crock.”

Lutz, now in his late 70s, still resembles the tall, handsome ex-Marine whose visibility was at its nadir for decades, but especially evident while he was serving in his second tenure with GM, spanning from 2001 to 2010. During that decade Lutz served as vice-chairman, or lieutenant for Rick Wagoner and then for three post-bankruptcy GM chairmen.

I met Lutz once, at a meet and greet for new media people held at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. I also met Rick Wagoner at the same show, but Lutz’ personality was more front and center, as he explained to his captive, yet attentive audience the virtues of the Chevy Volt, an electrified vehicle still some three years away from production.

Industry Troubles

His most recent book outlines the post-war transformation of an auto industry that went from a global innovative powerhouse to one that was gradually overwhelmed by “process” people and stifled by government regulation. Forever a defender of the U.S. auto industry, Lutz outlines how GM, Ford and Chrysler went from greatness to secondary status in a generation, facing an onslaught of cheaply made Japanese cars that were foisted upon the American populace with the consent of Washington bureaucrats concerned that Japan was at risk of being pulled into emerging China’s orbit. The thinking, according to Lutz, was that if Japan’s insulated economy could be strengthened by exporting its products to a willing American consumer, then everyone would benefit. Except, of course, the Big Three, companies Lutz said were dominated by accountants and very slow to adapt to or at least recognize change.

Much of Lutz’ book points out what went wrong with General Motors, a car company that once dominated the market, producing cars that were stylish, plush, fast and desirable. The transformation from powerhouse to also ran began as the company began to be driven by accountants, with design people stripped of their ability to build cars that were attractive or even worthy of consideration.

Management Missteps

Lutz faults top management and an archaic internal culture that lost sight of what the
customer wanted, producing cars that were ill-conceived and poorly executed. Examples of such included the Cadillac Cimarron, a compact car released in the early 1980s, but sharing the same platform and body of its Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick counterparts. Admitting that Cadillac was never quite the “standard of the world,” nonetheless the brand at one time exuded a certain level of respect whereby luxury products everywhere were defined by the “the Cadillac of….” in its respect industry. “The Cadillac of fashion” or the “Cadillac of new homes,” defined products mirroring a marque that at one time lived up to its exalted status.

The reader also sees where a Fortune 500 company, in a bid to maintain global dominance, made numerous executive and financial decisions which cost the company billions of dollars. Saturn was a plan that was ill-conceived, but did manage to attract a loyal, almost cult-like following. Never particularly fond of this “different” car company, nevertheless Lutz believed that Saturn had the products consumers wanted when the brand was canceled, but wasn’t given the advertising support necessary to advance the brand.

EV1, the electric car project, was too expensive and GM invested far more money in big trucks and SUVs, with not enough going toward small cars. Still, Lutz took to task the media, including a handful of blogger irritants whose GM bashing is wide known. Several times Lutz pointed out media bias and of its spoon-feeding of inaccuracies, if not lies, to an American public who supposedly didn’t know better. The “never can do wrong” Japanese have been proven to be vulnerable, with Lutz pointing out the recent recall problems of Toyota, an archnemeis and sometimes partner with GM.

Reconstructing GM

The best of Lutz is reserved for explaining the years leading up to GM’s downfall and eventual bankruptcy, followed by reconstruction. At once an instructor in the ways of improving automotive design as well as a PR guy not afraid to set the record straight, Lutz fought an uphill battle as vice-chairman, battling a culture steeped in tradition, if not in arcane thinking. The tide, however, was changing as cars such as the 2007 Saturn Aura and 2008 Chevrolet Malibu, reflected a GM that was building vehicles that were stylish, attractive and affordable, winning consecutive North American Car of the Year awards.

Although the company was bleeding billions annually, Lutz explained that GM was turning the corner in 2008, with several new and profitable products in the pipeline including the Chevy Camaro and the Chevrolet Cruze. The Cadillac CTS was in its second generation and successful, and the automaker had the Pontiac G8, arguably one of the best Pontiacs ever built, thanks to its Australian brand, Holden.

The downfall for GM came later that year as America’s financial problems came home to roost and as gas prices topped $4 per gallon. Alone, GM might have survived, but put together these twin challenges hammered the Big Three, leading to GM and Chrysler declaring bankruptcy, with Ford allowed to live on by tapping the funds accumulated from its hocked assets.

Going Global

The remainder of Lutz’ book explains how GM has come back from the precipice and has learned from its mistakes. Lutz warns that government regulations, a biased media and fickle consumers remain challenges for a company that has finally learned how to go global and how to get the product mix right. You’d expect Lutz to interject what he would have done if he were chairman and that he has done – devoting an entire chapter to “what might have been.” Yet, Lutz’s candor is refreshing and eye-opening, while still being able to admit his own mistakes and without shredding every one of his vocal opponents or glorifying his proponents.

“Car Guys” offers to the reader an insider’s glimpse into an industry gone wrong, but one that is far different from what we saw as recently as 2008. Lutz may be retired, but his influence lives on in this book as well as in GM’s current and upcoming product line.

Bibliography

Lutz, Bob, Car Guys v. Bean Counters. Portfolio | Penguin Group USA, 2011


See Also — Book Review — The Allure of the Automobile

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: BOB LUTZ, book review, BUICK, CADILLAC, Chevrolet, GENERAL MOTORS, GM, HUMMER, OLDSMOBILE, Pontiac, Saab

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