In 2009—which was a decade ago, FYI—Koenigsegg’s purchase of the beloved and mostly deceased Swedish automaker Saab was all but complete before it fell through at the last minute and Saab later went bankrupt. But now, 10 years later, Koenigsegg and zombie Saab are together once more, expanding a partnership to “develop a product for new and untapped segments” and talking about electrification....MORE
Will Saab never die? Will Saab never be allowed to die? It’s hard to say.
Koenigsegg announced the partnership on Tuesday, adding to its involvement with the confusingly named Chinese company National Electric Vehicle Sweden, or NEVS, which plucked Saab from bankruptcy in 2012.
NEVS debuted an electric “NEVS 9-3” model based on the Saab 9-3 in 2017, having lost rights to the Saab name when, two years after it acquired Saab, it also had a bankruptcy scare.
Anyway, Koenigsegg said it and NEVS will team up to develop “parallel vehicle models in slightly higher volumes” with emphasis on electrification—basically, sharing resources to make more cars that would either be hybrids, EVs or something else that falls under the vague banner of “electrification.” It also said the partnership would help “growth opportunities” in the hypercar segment, but didn’t say exactly how.
Technically, your multi-million-dollar Koenigsegg supercar can’t exactly be a Saab, but maybe you can wish it into existence if you stretch your imagination and buy some badges off eBay....
Not your grandmother's Saab:
