Youngman out, National Electric Vehicle Sweden in?

And then there were one (or two, or three?). Reports in Swedish media say that Chinese Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile now has been (or has willingly) dropped out of the race to buy the Saab bankruptcy estate.

Sources say that the reason for the Youngman drop out is uncertainty about payments from Youngman since all major payments needs Government approval. Youngman then follows Turkish Brightwell Holdings which dropped out in February.

This development would mean that we now are left with only mystery bidders. Indian Mahindra, which many times has been mentioned as a bidder, has never confirmed placing a bid on Saab within the final deadline. In addition, there might be one or two other bidders. One of these a consortium interested in starting electric car production.

On Monday the company National Electric Vehicle Sweden was registered in Sweden. The purpose of the company is "development of electric vehicles and vehicle components and related business." Member of the board of this new companys is among others Karl-Erling Trogen, a former CEO of Volvo Trucks.

"It's not just about electric cars, but also about larger volumes of hybrid cars related to a long term development in electric cars," a source said.

It is suggested that the consortium no longer includes Panasonic, but now a Chinese car maker, which could be BAIC, a Chinese battery maker and Swedish stakeholders.

But why shouldn't also this Chinese consortium run into problems with getting payments approved just like Youngman? Well, according to Swedish Radio P4 Väst, the consortium has its financing from outside China. Which of course also points to other stakeholders in he consortium besides Chinese companies.

If this consortium wins the battle, then it is bye bye to the Saab we know. It's said that they will probably not want the Saab Parts company, which would mean that they are not interested in the Saab cars presently on the roads. Maybe not even the Saab brand name.

Muller says speculations about 9-5 license is nonsense

Yesterday Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet wrote that Spyker could still be holding the license to produce the Saab 9-5. Furthermore that a buyer of Saab could produce the 9-5 on behalf of Spyker.

SvD and its reporter Jonas Fröberg is usually a very reliable source, but now Victor Muller, CEO og Spyker and former CEO of Saab, says that the story is not true.

"This is nonsense. It is something someone has made up," Muller told TTELA.

"I have honestly no idea where this story originate from. I have never heard of anything like this until the media made up the story. The usual nonsense," Muller said.

New undisclosed Chinese company wants Saab

According to Swedish business newspaper Dagens Industri, a new and yet undisclosed Chinese company has entered the battle to win Saab.

"It's correct that for the last two weeks there have been four parties interested in the Saab business," said Lars Holmqvist, former head of the European suppliers association CLEPA to DI.

The four interested parties would be Chinese Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile, Indian Mahindra & Mahindra, a Chinese-Japanese consortium with unknown stakeholders and now the latest bidder, an undisclosed Chinese company.

"I do not know how serious they are. I still believe that Chinese Youngman is in the lead seeing that they have already invested money in Saab," Holmqvist told Swedish news agency TT.

Speculations have it that this new indisclosed party could be Chinese Qoros Auto. Qoros is a new car brand aiming to launched their first car at the Geneva Motor Show next year. It has been said that the cars will be produced by Magna Steyr, but if the company acquires Saab in Trollhättan, that could change.

We have reported earlier here on Life with Saab that a number of former Saab executives, managers and engineers have actually been hired by Qoros. And that would of course mean that Qoros now has a good understanding of the values and possibilities in the Saab bankruptcy estate.

Qoros also has hired former people from Volvo, BMW and Volkswagen, and the company seem to be serious about entering the European market with competitive vehicles.

DI's sources say that the administrators may start negotiations with the new stakeholder should the talks with Mahindra and Youngman break down.

Interesting days a head!

Spyker might still hold license to the Saab 9-5

Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet today has very interesting article about a possible Spyker come back in the Saab deal.

Spyker has apparently hired the law firm Hökerberg & Söderqvist to look through all the deals Spyker made with GM back in 2010 when Spyker took ownership of Saab. And now the lawyers have concluded that Spyker might still hold the license to produce the new Saab 9-5.

"I can not go into the specifics, but it could be that the company has a contract that says that it can not transfer this deal over to anyone else - but then one could instead turn to subcontracting - without coming in breach of the contract," said lawyer Lars Söderqvist to SvD.

This could turn out to be very important in the Saab deal as a possible new owner of Saab could produce the Saab 9-5 as a subcontractor for Spyker. But it could also result in GM buying back the license from Spyker to prevent future use of the license.

6,000 pallets of Saab parts for sale

It's been a quiet week. Both concerning news about the sale of the Saab bankruptcy estate but also regarding other Saab news. But here's a piece of good news from today. Thousands of Saab spare parts are on the way to the market place!

Logistics companies Trollhättan Terminal and DHL Exel Supply Chain have been storing thousands of square meters of parts and components since the production at Saab stopped one year ago. Engines, transmission, airbags, antennas, instrument panels etc etc. The Saab parts and components which were valued to SEK 234 million before the bankruptcy. So we are talking about a lot of parts!

"We have a 6,000 pallets completely full of Saab components on a surface of 10,000 square meters," says Anders Forsberg, head at Trollhättan Terminal, to TTELA.

"Several have shown interest. They range from individual dealers and to other parties who are interested in spare parts for Saab."

Let's hope the part you are looking for is on the way to a dealer near you.

Video of Saab's TTA win

Last weekend Linus Ohlsson of Team Tidö/PWR Racing won the first race in the new TTA racing series in a Saab 9-3. Here's a video from the event.

Saab car won TTA premiere

Today was the much anticipated premiere of the Swedish TTA racing series where four Saab 9-3 cars participated. And 21-year old Linus Ohlsson won the race in his Saab 9-3.

Linus Ohlsson held pole position after the qualifying round earlier today. Ohlsson was ahead of more merited drivers like Fredrik Ekblom in Volvo and four time Swedish champion Richard Göransson driving a BMW.

In the actual race Linus Ohlsson in his Saab 9-3 held the first place from start to finish. And the young Swede now leads the TTA championship after scoring three points for the pole position in the qualifying round and thereafter winning Saturday's race.