Saab JMK Blog

Saab: Changing Perspectives Video

Images of The New 2010 Saab 9-5

Saab releases details of its new 9-5 flagship

Paul McVeigh Automotive News | August 27, 2009 - 5:03 am EST

MUNICH -- Saab today released details of its new 9-5 flagship, a car crucial to the brand's success as an independent automaker under new ownership. Earlier this month, General Motors Co. reached a deal to sell Saab to Koenigsegg Group AB, a consortium of private investors that includes Koenigsegg Automotive AB, a tiny Swedish maker of $1 million supercars. The new 9-5 will play an important role in a product offensive that Koenigsegg plans to announce once its purchase of the brand from GM is finalized. "This car is the start of a new era for our brand," said Saab Managing Director Jan-Ake Jonsson in a statement. Saab says the new 9-5 is the most technically advanced car it has made to date with an array of high-tech features including an aircraft-inspired head-up information display, Bi-Xenon adaptive headlights, adaptive cruise control, parking assistance and all-wheel-drive. The car will be offered with gasoline, diesel or E85 bioethanol four-cylinder turbocharged engines. The most fuel-efficient diesel, a 160hp, 2.0-liter unit, has CO2 emissions of 139 g/km. The new 9-5 shares GM's Epsilon 2 platform with the Opel/Vauxhall Insignia, but the Saab version has a longer wheelbase and its own unique muscular, low-slung exterior styling and unique interior. The current 9-5 has been on sale for 12 years and its sales have declined as the car has gotten older. In the first six months, Saab built 9,061 units of the 9-5, down 72.4 percent from the year before, according to J.D Power Automotive Forecasting. Saab sold 93,000 cars worldwide in 2008.

More Exciting News For Saab Lovers

Jan Åke Jonsson, MD Saab Automobile and Christian von Koenigsegg, CEO Koenigsegg Group, talk, on film, about the future of a new Saab

Saab today confirms that General Motors Co. has signed a stock purchase agreement with Koenigsegg Group AB regarding the sale of 100% of the shares of Saab Automobile AB.

The deal is expected to conclude in the next months and will then secure Saab’s future.  Also Saab Automobile announces that it plans to exit legal reorganization status shortly.  Jan Åke Jonsson, MD Saab Automobile and Christian von Koenigsegg, CEO Koenigsegg Group, talk, on film, about the future of a new Saab.

General Motors and Koenigsegg Group Sign Stock Purchase Agreement for SAAB

General Motors and Koenigsegg Group Sign Stock Purchase Agreement for the Sale of Saab Automobile AB.

The deal is expected to close by year’s end and will secure Saab’s future

The closing will be subject to funding agreements and other closing conditions

Saab Automobile plans to exit reorganization shortly

Zurich.  General Motors Co. today confirmed it has signed a stock purchase agreement with Koenigsegg Group AB regarding the sale of 100% of the shares of Saab Automobile AB. The deal is expected to conclude in the next months and will then secure Saab’s future.  Saab Automobile plans to exit legal reorganization shortly.

The stock purchase agreement will be subject to agreed closing conditions.  Conditions to close the sale include expected funding commitments with Swedish government support and guarantees, as well as transitional assistance from GM, as Saab becomes independent.  Saab is about to launch several new cars, developed with General Motors, that are in the final stages of development.  

As part of the proposed transaction, GM and Saab will continue to share technology and services during a defined time period. This will be managed through licenses and service agreements.

"This contract is an important step in the journey to a potential deal, said Carl-Peter Forster, president of GM Europe. “Saab's great cars, its unique design, safety- and engine-technology, as well as its excellent brand image, combined with Koenigsegg Group's unique combination of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, bode well for a successful future for the brand. We will continue to work with all parties to define the final details and ensure a fast closure of the deal, which we expect to take place in the next few months.  The closure of the deal is contingent on the funding commitment from the European Investment Bank (EIB), guaranteed by the Swedish government,” Forster added.    

"We have now concluded another important step in realizing the great potential of Saab,” said Christian von Koenigsegg, CEO of Koenigsegg Group.  “Our plan is to transform Saab into a stand-alone vibrant entrepreneurial company and make it ‘sustainable’ by making it profitable.  We will revive Saab’s Swedish heritage of ecological sensitivity, safety, design innovation and ‘fun to drive’ experience!"  

Jan Åke Jonssson, Managing Director of Saab, said: “This is excellent news for everyone connected to Saab around the globe.  This is an important step to secure jobs and our long-term future as a Swedish carmaker.  In the short-term, it will enable us to move forward with exciting new cars starting this month with the all new Saab 9-3X.”

 

Swede Deal: Saab Back in Swedish Hands

The Not-so-Small Koenigsegg Group AB Puts Saab Back in Swedish Hands -

Swede deal.

BY JOSH DEAN, PHOTOGRAPHY BY AUTOSCOOP.BIZ, KGP PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE MANUFACTURERS
August 2009 (CarandDriver.com)

 

We can understand if you suffered whiplash after double-taking at news of the sale of Saab to Koenigsegg, an eccentric, elusive, and tiny Swedish company. It was sort of like hearing that your local Elks Club had sold enough raffle tickets to purchase the Cincinnati Reds.

On closer inspection, it makes a little more sense. The closest connection we can come up with is that Saab is “Born from Jets!” as the ads used to boast, and Koenigsegg is headquartered at a decommissioned Swedish fighter-jet base. Saab’s new owner is actually not Koenigsegg Auto AB, the builder of million-dollar-plus supercars—but rather Koenigsegg Group AB, a consortium of partners that includes Koenigsegg Auto; Alpraaz, a Swedish import-export company; Augie Fabela, a Russian telecom billionaire; Mark Bishop, a San Diego–based investment banker; and Baard Eker, a Norwegian mogul whose Eker Group also owns 49 percent of Koenigsegg Auto.

Both Koenigsegg entities are led by the same man, Christian von Koenigsegg, the 37-year-old descendent of an aristocratic Swedish family who is best described as an entrepreneur-slash-inventor who personally holds many of the patents on his cars. Von Koenigsegg’s pop legend—as stated in the company’s press materials and certain to be quoted in any story about the man (as evidenced here)—is that he has dreamed of making sports cars since he was five and watched an animated Norwegian film about a bicycle repairman who builds a race car.

At 22, von Koenigsegg set about realizing that dream, sketching the first design for a car and sinking what he has said was about $2.5 million of his and his father’s money into the project. Two years later, he had a working prototype, and by 2002, the Koenigsegg CC8S—powered by a 4.6-liter, supercharged Ford V-8 with 655 horsepower—was on sale in Europe with the von Koenigsegg family coat of arms at the heart of the brand’s badge. We tested the first Koenigsegg in November 2001 and found that the carbon-fiber two-seater clipped through the quarter-mile in 12.0 seconds at 120 mph, on its way to a claimed top speed well over 200 mph.

Christian von Koenigsegg has, either by choice or lack of interest, given few interviews. It’s not because he doesn’t speak our language; his English is excellent, and he is a distinctive presence, looking a little like the villain in a James Bond film.

He declined an interview for this story and has pretty much declined them all except for a few given to the Swedish media, during which he said almost nothing of substance, which is not surprising as the Saab deal will likely not be finalized until the end of summer. “Our ambition is to build a Swedish car company with all that implies,” he told SVT, a Swedish public broadcaster.