For twenty years the Saab 9000 and the Saab 9.5 were my cars of choice until “old age” has forced me to the blend of comfort and power that a Mercedes represents.
But Saab Motors is now on life support and in the hands of a Victor Muller who resembles a quack doctor extracting every bit he can from a dying patient. Saab’s production has been halted while new transfusions of money are being desperately sought – from very strange and dubious Russian and Chinese sources. The employees continue to hope and their attempts to push back the day of reckoning is perfectly understandable. But the fundamental reality is that not enough Saab cars are bought and it has become too expensive for what it is. The technology is still superb but in the meantime the Saab brand is being dragged through mud and manure.
Euthanasia is preferable to this degradation of the brand.
The Chinese money is unlikely to be forthcoming.
Saab’s affaire with Chinese Hawtai has led to questions in the Chinese media. Experts are cautious about the marriage, and it is feared it will be stopped by the authorities. Hong Kong-based Phoenix television station says on its site ifeng.com
“Saab is not Volvo. The established Chinese car companies are not interested in Saab, and therefore this contract has come between Saab and Hawtai, two companies that both are in need to get out of a difficult situation. But what are the chances that the agreement be implemented? “
The Chinese Commission on Development and Reform NDRC, has to approve major transactions between Chinese and foreign companies. “Just as when Tengzhong Heavy Industrial tried to buy the Hummer this agreement between Hawtai and Saab has not been reported to the NDRC in advance, and therefore it has not been approved. It is therefore difficult to say whether this project will be approved. Further, the establishment of a joint venture for the manufacture and sale of Saab Cars is even more difficult.”
In recent times there has been a very strict control on approval of joint ventures for the manufacture of complete cars. “Even the long discussed projects between Changan Mazda Guangzhou Automobile and Mitsubishi, between Changan and PSA Peugeot Citroen, and the proposed Volkswagen plant expansions in Nanhai and Jiangsu are all still waiting for approval. To think that Saab Cars, which does not have as much advanced technology, would be allowed into manufacture and sale in China is less likely.”
Industry observers think that Hawtai’s and Saab’s agreement on strategic cooperation may suffer the same fate as Tengzhongs purchase of Hummer, and ultimately not be anything at all, according to Phoenix.
Even the South China Morning Post questioned whether authorities would approve the deal.
And in the meantime Saab suppliers have had to warn that they may be forced to lay-off their employees.
Tags: brand degradation, Hawtai, SAAB, Sweden, Victor Muller
The k2p blog 
May 12, 2011 at 9:21 am
[…] expense – ostensibly to save Saab, seems more and more like the acts of a charlatan. I have observed earlier that his high-profile chasing of Russian and Chinese money will probably lead nowhere except to […]