Battery, biomass and cars. That is what the group behind National Electric Vehicle Sweden's (NEVS) bid on the Saab estate wants to start producing at Saab's Stallbacka industrial area. And all signs points to NEVS as the next owner of Saab.
Yesterday the Trollhättan city manager told the media that the deal to sell Saab was done, but later her statement were dissmissed by the head of information at Trollhättan municipality. But where there's smoke, there's fire, right?
Last night Swedish TV SVT reported that Chinese Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile, which last week returned with an new and improved bid after being turned down by the administrators a couple of weeks earlier, now confirms that they have had no contact with the administrators lately. According to their spokesman, Johan Nylén, Youngman hasn't even gotten a response to their new and improved bid. So I guess we can count out Youngman for good now.
About Indian Mahindra & Mahindra we haven't heard much for a while. From Manhindra itself, we haven't in fact heard anything during this whole process. When all is said and done, I count Mahindra also out of the picture and maybe they weren't even in the picture!
One party that could become a prominent stakeholder in Saab's next phase and the future of Trollhättan is American battery maker Prudent Energy. According to TTELA, which cites a source, Prudent will start battery manufacturing for the automotive industry in Trollhättan. And the company will of course also be the battery making partner of NEVS.
Prudent Energy has its headquarters in the US, but has also operations in China. The company's CEO, Johnson Chiang, is also member of the board of State Power Group, the company owned by Kai Johan Jiang - the man behind NEVS.
TTELA also writes that there are plans to start a biomass production facility at Stallbacka. The company behind NEVS, National Modern Energy Holdings, is heavily involved in business concerning substainable energy sources, primarily biomass. And so it's no big surprise that they want to establish a biomass facility as well.
And one can hope that the plans to make cars are just as ambitious, and that they include regular everyday versatile (hybrid) cars as well as quirky electric cars!
A blog fueled by enthusiasm about Saab, the greatest car company between the North and the South Pole. And their cars, which probably is the only cars that would start on a cold and crispy South Pole morning.
