Good news, SAAB starts production of the new NEVS SAAB 9-3 on Monday 2nd November

Saab's new owner, National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), will begin series production of the 9-3 mid-sized sedan at the brand's Trollhattan assembly plant in Sweden on Monday, almost two years to the day since the company was forced to file for bankruptcy.
The last cars produced by the automaker rolled off the production line in April 2011, eight months before Saab, then under the control of Spyker NV, filed for bankruptcy on December 19.

''Yes, we will start the actual production on Monday,'' Mikael Oestlund, a spokesman for NEVS, told Automotive News Europe, adding that initial output would have a ''humble'' pace with the possibility to increase the volume over time.

National Electric Vehicle Sweden, which is owned by a Chinese renewable energy investor, bought Saab out of bankruptcy last August. The production start has been achieved after NEVS was able to reach an agreement with parts suppliers, Oestlund said.

Oestlund said the production car would be powered by a gasoline turbocharged engine and would resemble pre-series models built for testing in September. These in turn closely resembled the last production 9-3s built at Trollhattan in 2011.

Oestlund said an electric variant of the 9-3, initially aimed at the Chinese market, will begin production in 2014. This will likely feature a new face-lifted exterior.

In August, Oestlund told Automotive News Europe that the 9-3 will be sold in Europe and China initially with U.S. sales possible later.

Phoenix-based cars

NEVS has previously said it plans to build cars based on the Phoenix architecture developed by Saab before the automaker's bankruptcy, after first modifying it to remove the 20 percent of parts sourced from former Saab owner General Motors.

NEVS is owned by Hong Kong National Modern Energy Holdings, which is run by Swedish-Chinese green energy entrepreneur Kai Johan Jiang. NEVS is 22 percent owned by the Chinese city of Qingdao following a deal earlier this year.

IS THIS THE NEW 9-3 THAT WILL BE THE FACE LIFTED CAR ?

REPORT HERE

TMW - Its that time of the Month - September UK sales.

JAGUAR

AUGUST 2012 2962 sales - AUGUST 2013 3183 sales +7.46%
YTD 2012 11139 sales - YTD 2013 13256 sales +19.01%

LAND ROVER

AUGUST 2012 8745 sales - AUGUST 2013 9531 sales +8.99%
YTD 2012 38847 sales - YTD 2013 43916 sales +13.05%

JAGUAR LAND ROVERS COMPETITORS

BMW

AUGUST 2012 22427 sales - AUGUST 2013 27308 sales +21.76%
YTD 2012 97692 sales - YTD 2013 105313 sales +7.80%

MERCEDES

AUGUST 2012 16618 sales - AUGUST 2013 21256 sales +27.91%
YTD 2012 73401 sales - YTD 2013 86624 sales +18.01%

LEXUS

AUGUST 2012 1541 sales - AUGUST 2013 2013 sales +30.63%
YTD 2012 7050 sales - YTD 2013 7067 sales -0.24%

AUDI

AUGUST 2012 22283 sales - AUGUST 2013 25289 sales +15.91%
YTD 2012 101390 sales - YTD 2013 114261 sales +12.69%

RISERS ON PREVIOUS YEAR (YOY CUMULATIVE)

ABARTH +18.64%

CITROEN +9.20%

DACIA +100.00%

FIAT +19.63%

FORD +10.99%

HONDA +3.06%
HYUNDAI +9.07%
KIA +10.22%

LOTUS +17.50%
MAZDA +14.59%

MINI +5.58% 

MITSUBISHI +49.61%

NISSAN +11.86%

PEUGEOT +6.01%

PORSCHE +1.06%
RENAULT +6.42%

SEAT +16.51%
SKODA +19.40% 

SMART +6.86% 
SUBARU +0.69%
SUZUKI +29.68%
TOYOTA +5.72%
VAUXHALL +11.50%

VOLKSWAGEN +5.33%

VOLVO +2.48%

LOSERS THIS YEAR (YOY CUMULATIVE)

ALFA ROMEO -26.48%

ASTON MARTIN -1.76%

BENTLEY -3.68%

CHEVROLET -14.63%

CHRYSLER -23.70%

INFINITI -18.45%

JEEP -12.80%

MASERATI -0.42%

MG -56.74%

PERODUA -43.73%

PROTON -90.86%

SAAB -98.60%

SSANGYONG -26.60%

September has shown that the UK is ignoring the financial woes that are effecting many other countries around the world, with a 12% increase in sales over last year and near 11% for the year, and increasingly more manufacturers are showing positive yearly results, there are are only 13 companies showing decreases on 2012, of which 3 no longer sell cars, they are clearing out old stocks.

MG continues to struggle, yes they have 104 registrations for September, but those figures are very misleading, as 50 MG6 Magnette's were pre registered at the beginning of the month and sold to Motorpoint at a massive discount, that leaves 54, with 47 dealers currently names on MG's website, each will have one new MG3, that leaves 7, and the demos used for testing via MG, would take up 3-4, so when you break down the sales figures, they are really very poor.

Mitsubishi and Suzuki are both having a great time in the UK and both have new cars coming on stream to carry the sales momentum forward, Chevy is a weird one, they have some great cars, especially the Cruze, but some of the smaller ones like the Spark are truly dreadful, and recent reports on the Spark have shown how bad it is, PAG continue its dominance, with VW, SEAT, Skoda and AUDI all out performing last years figures.

The Corsa, Focus and Fiesta lead both the monthly sales chart as well as the yearly one, BMW are creeping on with the 1-Series and 3-Series edging higher on the chart, The  Golf, Astra, Polo, Qashqai and Peugeots 208 round out the yearly top ten, out of the 1.8 million cars this year sold, over half a million is taken by the top ten, as per usual Ford and Vauxhall continue to dominate as they have for decades, but their lead is slowly but surely being eaten away, and it wont be long before either the Golf or BMW 1 or 3-Series takes the top spot, and when that happens it will be a very sad day for the UK motor industry.

Lastly, jaguar and Land Rover, how great it is to see this once lame duck (under Ford ownership) flourishing and showing the world that the UK can design and build stunning cars, both in looks and performance, and it is not just in the UK, US sales (elsewhere on the blog) have again shown an upward sales swing, the new Range Rover,RR Sport and F-Type are all performing extremely well, and with new models in the pipeline, the new Discovery 5/Freelander 3, XF, XT, and C-X17 SUV the sales flight will continue for some years to come.

Jon Mower

Great news, SAAB is back, test vehicles have been produced.

Saab's new owner, National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), has built two Saab 9-3 test cars at the brand's Trollhattan assembly plant in Sweden ahead of a production launch later this year.

The vehicles, which left the production line on Wednesday, are the first Saabs to be built at the plant since it closed in April 2011 ahead of the automaker filing for bankruptcy eight months later.

NEVS say the cars are primarily intended to assist in calibrating production line systems and to test new components ahead of full production.

"Prior to our decision to start production of Saab cars, we need to finalize a few remaining dialogues to build partnerships with suppliers. We now know that the plant is ready for production," Mattias Bergman, acting president of NEVS, said in a statement on Wednesday.

NEVS plans to start output of the 9-3 powered by a gasoline turbocharged engine later this year. The model will be very similar to last Saab produced in 2011, Mikael Oestlund, a spokesman for NEVS, told Automotive News Europe.

An electric variant planned for production in 2014 will feature a new face-lifted exterior, Oestlund said.

Future Saab cars will not have the distinctive griffin head badge seen on previous Saabs after NEVS failed to acquire the rights to use the badge when it bought Saab out of bankruptcy last August.

Former owner Spyker, which bought Saab from General Motors, failed to revive the brand after trying unsuccessfully to arrange several deals with Chinese investors.

Phoenix architecture

NEVS has said previously it also plans to build cars based on the Phoenix architecture developed by Saab before the automaker went bankrupt. The platform will have to be modified to remove the 20 percent of parts sourced from GM.

The company plans to build 120,000 units of the 9-3 a year by 2016, according to a report by Bloomberg in January. That target would come close to the brand's 2006 peak of 133,000 autos.

NEVS says the 9-3 will be sold in Europe and China initially with U.S. sales possible later.

Read more:  

TMW - Its that time of the month - August UK sales figures

JAGUAR

AUGUST 2012 178 sales - AUGUST 2013 260 sales +46.07%
YTD 2012 8177 sales - YTD 2013 10073 sales +23.19%

LAND ROVER

AUGUST 2012 591 sales - AUGUST 2013 806 sales +36.38%
YTD 2012 30102 sales - YTD 2013 34385 sales +14.23%

JAGUAR LAND ROVERS COMPETITORS

BMW

AUGUST 2012 3449 sales - AUGUST 2013 4401 sales +27.60%
YTD 2012 75265 sales - YTD 2013 78005 sales +3.64%

MERCEDES

AUGUST 2012 2378 sales - AUGUST 2013 3058 sales +28.60%
YTD 2012 56783 sales - YTD 2013 65386 sales +15.12%

LEXUS

AUGUST 2012 197 sales - AUGUST 2013 231 sales +17.26%
YTD 2012 5526 sales - YTD 2013 5037 sales -8.85%

AUDI

AUGUST 2012 4008 sales - AUGUST 2013 3904 sales -2.59%
YTD 2012 79107 sales - YTD 2013 88432 sales +11.79%

RISERS ON PREVIOUS YEAR (YOY CUMULATIVE)

ABARTH +21.27%

ASTON MARTIN +5.39%

CITROEN +12.17%
DACIA +100.00%

FIAT +16.81%

FORD +11.83%

HONDA +7.71%
HYUNDAI +9.60%
KIA +10.38%

LOTUS +27.18%
MASERATI +6.03%
MAZDA +6.06%

MINI +4.06% 

MITSUBISHI +40.57%

NISSAN +14.28%

PEUGEOT +6.05%

RENAULT +0.29%

SEAT +18.79%
SKODA +15.14% 

SMART +7.89% 
SUZUKI +33.32%
TOYOTA +5.46%
VAUXHALL +12.95%

VOLKSWAGEN +5.32%

LOSERS THIS YEAR (YOY CUMULATIVE)

ALFA ROMEO -32.41%

BENTLEY -1.85%

CHEVROLET -21.09%

CHRYSLER -24.80%

INFINITI -18.13%

JEEP -16.70%

MG -69.77%

PERODUA -36.40%

PORSCHE -1.28%

PROTON -91.89%

SAAB -98.55%

SSANGYONG -34.35%

SUBARU -11.53%

VOLVO -1.67%

Yet another great month in the UK for sales, with another a near 11% increase on the month and 10% on the year, the car manufacturers are having a good time, and this will continue with many new models coming on stream over the next three months from the MG3 to Seat's Leon ST, Skoda's new Yeti, Superb face lift and Octavia VRs, to New Insignia, Nissan Note, 308 and Kia Soul to name but a tiny amount.

Dacia is the new darling of the UK sales with nearly 9,000 already sold and that's with four model lineup, whereas on the other hand MG continue to be embarrassed by it tiny sales, 13 again, and I suspect that some if not all of those were pre-registered MG3 models ready to be used for press reviews, I will be reviewing the MG3 in the next week, after the MG6, Mazda6 and Mazda CX-5, so keep an eye out for these.

The usual suspects are in the top ten sales charts, Fiesta, Focus, Astra, Corsa, Golf, Polo, Qashqai, 1 and 3 series and surprisingly the Vauxhall Insignia, surprising because it is currently on run out ready for the next gen version, so maybe either a lot of pre-reg or some very cheap deals, those are readily available, again i will be doing a report on these in the next month or two.

The UK has seen an unprecedented 18 month of continuous rise in sales, during which the world has seen continued difficulties in labour, financial and personal circumstances, can the UK carry on with these rises, or will there be another collapse like the collapse that occurred in both June 2009 and December 2011, will there be anymore corporate collapses like MG-Rover and SAAB, as pricing gets more competitive, and margins get slimmer, can the smaller brands compete in an ever more difficult market.