Saab Reborn as EV Manufacturer (Again)

Remember Saab? It used to be a small manufacturer of high quality sedans located in Trollhättan, Sweden. Its owners were fiercely loyal to the brand. At least they were until the company was purchased by General Motors in the 80’s at a time when GM and Ford were swaggering their way around the world, buying up car makers to burnish their image. Ford at one time owned Volvo, Jaguar, and Land  Rover, so GM felt compelled to buy  Saab in self defense.

What it did to the once proud company was painful to watch. It foisted off some of its least impressive models on the Swedes and rebranded them as Saabs. One unfortunate candidate for such badge engineering was the Chevy Blazer. Another was the Subaru WRX. At the time, GM owned a controlling stake in Suburu, before selling out for pennies on the dollar to Toyota.

During its stewardship of Saab, GM managed to besmirch the Swedish company’s reputation egregiously. Quality went over a cliff and customers deserted the brand in droves. Ultimately, GM’s brilliant management bankrupted the company. Its assets were purchased by Dutch car maker Spyker, but production never resumed. It in turn was purchased by Chinese investors and rechristened NEVS — an acronym standing for New Electric Vehicle Sweden.

NEVS, which had been scrambling for cash, announced this week that it has received a $12 billion dollar order for 225,000 of its electric cars from a Chinese leasing company called Panda New Energy. (!?)

The bodies of the Panda cars will be manufactured at the same Trollhättan factory in Sweden that the first “NEVS” Saabs were built at, then shipped to China where assembly will be completed in a new factory that is under construction. It is believed the cars will be based on the “archaic” Epsilon chassis that last saw service under the Saab 9-3.

The order will bring the Swedish factory back to life after a long sleep and could create hundreds of new jobs in Sweden. NEVS has also announced that it will begin manufacturing 5 new electric vehicles by 2018. The first will be based on the same outdated Epsilon platform, but a new small sedan and three small SUV’s are planned for the more modern Phoenix platform that GM designed but never put into production, according to Green Car Reports.

As for the name Saab, NEVS does not yet own the rights to use it. After the car company folded, the name reverted to the control of the Swedish aircraft manufacturer with the same name. NEVS is negotiating for permission to badge its new cars with the once-proud Saab brand name once again.

Image credit: NEVS.

Lancia Launches Eco-chic Website for New Bi-fuel Models

Oh, Lancia – how you tease me so! Longtime readers of Gas 2 and (before that) Sunshine Supercars are well aware of my love for Vincenzo Lancia’s “shield and flag” logo that is still (mostly) recognizable on the snouts of these little Italian luxury cars. What’s not to love? Want a fast, torquey, 40+ MPG minivan decked out in enough wood and leather to launch its own PeTA/EPA protest blog? Lancia has that. Want a tiny, inner-city runabout with the visual footprint (and 50+ MPG rating) of the long-lost and sorely missed Geo Metro that’s appointed like a bespoke suit and fitted with more high-end Alcantara and cutting-edge style than next week’s episode of Project Runway? Lancia has one of those. Want a swoopy, entry-luxe sedan that needs little more than a paint-job to look like a credible BTCC or WRC stage winner? Lancia most definitely has that.

So, basically everything I write about Lancia is a thinly disguised love letter … if you’re not OK with that, stop reading and go find some awful, boring car to obsess over. Try one of those Subaru WRX STis. People seem to like obsessing over those.

Still here?

I’ll get to the point, then.

A few days ago, I got an email inviting me to check out Lancia’s new (new to me, anyway) eco-chic website (that’s not me being a clever writer, by the way – the site’s URL is actually LanciaEcoChic.com). The site introduced me to Lancia’s new line of ultra low-emission bi-fuel cars, which are capable of running on both conventional gasoline or LPG, without sacrificing comfort or driving dynamics.

Granted, Lancia could come out with a car that ran on puppy dogs and the tears of orphaned children and I’d probably hail it as some kind of marvel – but this isn’t that (I don’t think). Instead, these cars a response to increasingly strict emissions laws throughout Europe and Asia, which tax cars based on their emissions. It’s also significantly cheaper to fuel up with LPG, with a full tank costing less than 25 Euro, per the Lancia eco-chic website. That’s not even half of what it would cost to fill up on regular gasoline in most European markets.

Translation: the bi-fuel Lancias are cleaner, cheaper, and – believe it or not – even more convenient, with a potential driving range of more than 900 miles.

For those of you into tech-y stuff, LPG is not to confused with CNG. The fuel is a mixture of propane and butane, and has an energy density of about 10,000 kCal/kg … within 3% of conventional gasoline and near-as-makes-no-difference identical to the E10 and E15 we get stateside.

Lancia chose well, and – thanks to the Fiat buyout of Chrysler – we get to give a damn! The next Delta is expected to come to the US as the Chrysler 100 in 2014. No word on whether we’ll be getting a bi-fuel option, but expect a bio-rated diesel and seat-staining, twin-air, 280+ hp V6 to be options.

Source: Lancia.