Years of painful struggle were endured before Saab finally succumbed to bankruptcy December last year. However, if there's anything we've learned, nobody gives up on Saab. Last year, Chinese outfit Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. Ltd made multiple attempt to bid on the Swedish mark before discussions fell through. Now, a new player has emerged in the form of National Electric Vehicle Sweden, an all new enterprise associated with former Volvo Trucks head Karl-Erling Trogen.
According to UK's Autocar, National Electric Vehicle Sweden are reportedly the current lead bidder on out-of-administration Saab assets after Zhejiang Youngman dropped out of the bidding. To date, details on Karl-Erling Trogen's new electric vehicle company are limited but Autocar reports that the new company was only approved by the Swedish company registration office on Monday.
Adding to the mystery, National Electric Vehicle Sweden allegedly receives backing from a Japanese-Chinese organization, with as much as 245 of its 500 shares owned by a company known as Sun Investment. The remaining 255 is held by Ac-Gruppen President Mikael Kubu, the head honcho of a Gothenburg, Sweden, based law firm.
Valdemar Lonnroth, a journalist of the TTELA local newspaper of Trollhattan, Sweden, told Autocar, "We have a very anonymous investment company that owns shares in this registered company, Sun Investment, but we stil ldont' know who's behind it. We don't know if it's a Chinese or a Japanese company behind this conglomerate. Nobody has really a picture of what kind of resources they have or what their intentions are, besides the fact that they want to produce electric vehicles."
As for liquidation director at Saab, Hans Bergqvist declined to make a statement. "We are in an intense period and we're not commenting on the sales process."
As far as we can tell, Saab interest from an Electric Vehicle company can mean a future with electric Saabs if the deal goes through. However, National Electric Vehicle Sweden will have to leap over some major hurdles regardless of whatever sort of company backing it receives. Former Saab owner GM has frozen all negotiations with prospective buyers over licensing its key technology at Saab. Checkmate.
