The Saab assembly line re-starts, earlier this year, after the Swedish maker's sale to Dutch Spyker.
Conventional wisdom in the auto industry says that economy of scale is the only way automakers will survive in the future.
Then again, there’s never been anything conventional about Saab, at least not when it was a successful independent automaker. Saab’s best cars have never been conventional, either. And the way tiny Dutch sports car maker Spyker Cars tried to save the brand wasn’t conventional.
Spyker, which failed to close the deal in its initial try to buy Saab, was finally able to put a winning bid together in February, just as former owner General Motors was ready to turn out the lights on the faltering Swedish subsidiary.
But Victor Muller, co-founder and CEO of Spyker and now chairman of Saab, promised his plan will make Saab profitable within as little as two years. The key will be to reduce the break-even point for the number of cars it produces from 120,000 to 85,000 cars while building vehicles that the loyal core of Saab aficionados want.
“You have to wonder, why did we want to save Saab so badly,” Muller said. “This brand is so unique, we really thought it was worth saving,” he quickly added in answer to his own question.
“We don’t think the company is going to sell much more than it has in the past,” says Saab's new CEO Victor Muller.
Muller, who spoke during a visit to the U.S., said Saabs have to return to their roots, which means they will be a little quirky and have advanced technology. The brand has to play on its aviation heritage. Other keys are safety, durability and success in rally competition.
There are more than a few skeptics – and for good reason. Saab sales dropped from 94,000 in 2008 to just 39,000 in 2009. Part of the problem is Saab stopped shipping cars to U.S. dealers in February 2009 and is just now restarting shipments of the new 9-5.
(Click Here for TheDetroitBureau.com’s review of the all-new Saab 9-5.)
Analysts have suggested that GM lost money on every Saab built during the 10 years it was the automaker’s sole owner, but Muller remains undaunted.
A tall, elegant Dutchman with little if any accent and a witty sense of humor, Muller insisted that Saab will do fine if it just serves the loyal following of Saab lovers, rather than trying to be a Swedish version of BMW or Audi.
“We don’t need new customers,” Muller said. “We only need our old customers back.”
GM invested little in traditional new Saab models such as the 9-3 and 9-5. Instead, GM had Saab’s engineers and stylists rebadge other vehicles from its corporate empire, spawning the 9-2x, which was based on the Subaru Impreza, and the 9-7x, which was built alongside the Chevrolt TrailBlazer. Both vehicles only served to alienate Saab’s core buyers, Muller said.
Interestingly, though, GM did invest heavily in Saab’s plant in Trollhattan, Sweden, spending 750 million euros, even though, at one time, GM considered closing the plant.
“It’s the most efficient factory they had,” Muller said, adding that the idea of watching a 13-year-old car design come down that advanced assembly line seemed strange.
Just as the ownership change was occurring, Saab was readying for production of its 9-5 model, which is based on a GM platform and uses GM engines. In fact, Saab is counting on using GM technology until at least 2024.
In developing its next generation of cars, Muller hopes to partner with others to share technology. For example, Muller and Christina Lampe-Onnerud, founder and CEO of Boston Power, announced a partnership to work on a test fleet of all-electric 9-3s, 100 of which will be on the road by the end of the year.
Muller said the company has several more partners that are interested in working with it.
For the future, Saab is planning a new 9-3 for 2012. The 9-3 platform started as GM, but now is completely Saab and will be used for additional future models, he said. Beyond that, Muller is dreaming of building a new 9-2, which would be a premium small car that would resurrect the name of the company’s first model from 1949.
“That would be my finest hour,” Muller said.
Saab is also continuing work with GM on the 9-4x, a crossover which will be built in Mexico and based on the Cadillac SRX. But don’t expect the see much of GM in the upcoming models.
“Saabs have to be true Saabs again,” Muller said.