NEVS, heir to the legendary Swedish manufacturer Saab, went into “hibernation” mode at the beginning of the year with the aim of reducing costs and thus avoiding bankruptcy. As a result of this movement, the subsidiary of the Chinese giant Evergrande has been forced to lay off 95% of its workforce, keeping only 20 employees on the payroll.
Nina Selanderinternal executive director of the company, explained a few months ago that this decision had been made “after our owners, Evergrande, and our potential investors were unable to finalize negotiations in accordance with our contract”. Evergrande, which is established as one of the largest real estate groups in the world, is going through a complicated debt crisis that has shaken the sector in its home market.
NEVS has reached an agreement with Polestar for the latter to take over part of its facilities in Trollhattan, the historic Saab flagship factory. Volvo’s sports brand will rent a 15,000-square-meter building with the aim of expanding its R&D operations in Europe.
Polestar, which will test electric motors and batteries at the facility, plans to complete powertrain development for the Polestar 5 and 6 in Trollhattan. The Scandinavian firm also has other centers of this type in Gothenburg (Sweden) and Coventry (United Kingdom)where it is finalizing an advanced aluminum platform for its new flagships, which will be produced at the Geely group plant in Chongqing (China).
The NEVS Emily GT project is for sale
What will happen to NEVS projects? Since it will not be able to complete them in the short and medium term, management has made the decision to put the most advanced of them up for sale: the Emily GTa state-of-the-art electric saloon whose development has already been completed and of which there are several fully functional prototypes.
With the idea of giving visibility to the model, the company has allowed the Swedish media Auto Motor & Sport Sverige Get behind the wheel of one of the available units. The aesthetics of the NEVS Emily GT is directly inspired by the legacy of the long-awaited Saab; Not surprisingly, it has been designed by simon padianwhich also designed the latest Saab 9-5.
Among other things, the Emily GT features an 800 volt system, induction charging, one motor at each wheel and a 0-100 km/h in 3.2 seconds. In accordance with Auto Motor & Sport Sverigeits dynamic behavior is outstanding, an opinion also shared by Christian von Koenigsegg. Will it hit the streets? Everything will depend on whether any manufacturer shows interest in buying the project from NEVS with the aim of taking it to production.
«Yes, it is a treasure that is leaving. We have had a team that has done an incredible job with the project.”Selander has declared. “Without the heart and dedication we have, it would have been impossible to develop such a fantastic product in such a short time. I wish from the bottom of my heart that Emily had a future.. It has been packaged to the best of our ability to make it a reality.”
Source | saabplanet
