Could I be dreaming.....

ba_barabus

....or could a Saab return be on the cards?

This seems to have slipped under everybody's radar:

http://nordicwheels.de/volvo-startet-neue-automarke/

nordicwheels wrote:

There have been rumours for some time; now they have become concrete.

It is becoming apparent Volvo will launch a new car brand. The plans should be well advanced, in Sweden, a date is circulating, not yet officially confirmed.

CEVT (China Euro Vehicle Technology), under the leadership of former Saab chief development officer Mats Fägerhag, has developed vehicles for Volvo and Geely, and for another unknown brand. 1,700 engineers and technicians work worldwide for CEVT, and this Wednesday they have added an additional location in Sweden, a new office at the former Saab site in Trollhättan.

The sale of the new vehicles will be through the Volvo dealer network, as an alternative to the premium brand. It will start in Sweden as a Swedish brand, Europe will follow. In Sweden, May 26 is presumed to be "the premiere" in Gothenburg. For this day, the staff has grown considerably Geely’s PR department has issued VIP invitations.

What is developing at Volvo? The brand is pushing prices towards premium. It is logical that customers who do not want to go the whole way will want to stay with slightly cheaper products in the Volvo camp. A third brand brings Geely more numbers and synergies, the modular platform is the optimal approach for it.

The new brand is the alternative choice for global distribution by Geely. Also standing to choice, Geely could roll out to the Volvo dealer network. It is possible that the first vehicles will be seen in 2018, when the first new Volvos on the CMA platform roll off the line.

It will be interesting to see if Volvo brings a brand out of the woodwork. In Volvo’s history, there is, so far as I know, no label that they could revive. In Sweden the merger with Saab to give the two marques more volume was discussed regularly. For this purpose, it never happened.

A completely new brand name: that would be a risky and expensive story. Lexus and Infiniti took decades to achieve acceptance. Qoros tried it with Swedish engineers, and have to date been unsuccessful. Also, Borgward now tries to come back to the market as a Chinese owned company.

The exit door is open. And would a new brand name, invented by an agency are accepted as Swedish?

Anatom

I'd love to see it back as a brand in its own right. I just can't see it happening though.

colm_mcm

I'm pretty sure this came up here before.
the reality is they'll just be a cookie-cutter design with added saabness like centre ignition and a seatbelt warning bong that harks back to their aircraft heritage etc.
The good thing is that the Chinese have done a good job with Volvo and you won't have the battle of ideas that GM had to fight. they might actually do a better job if they have total control of the design while at the same time making something that feels like a saab.

Not blaming saab for the GM Saabs by the way. Saab just wanted the cars to be better but GM wanted to make money

Anatom

Very true. Their economic model wasn't the best, but GM could have supported them more, especially with the new 95 out on sale and other new cars almost ready for production.