Autocar
Collapse of start-up NEVS means several of the last 9-3s ever built – plus prototypes – are now being sold off The last Saabs left at the defunct company’s factory in Trollhättan, Sweden, are being sold at auction. The sale marks the end of the line for NEVS, the start-up born out of Saab’s collapse in 2021. It was staffed primarily by former Saab engineers and was backed by Chinese property the Evergrande Group, working primarily on autonomous and electric cars. Those included the striking Emily GT , a coupé which evoked Saab’s styling and was fitted with in-wheel motors. But Evergrande – then China’s second-largest property developer – collapsed in 2021, and in February 2023 it laid off 320 of its 340 staff based at Trollhättan. In April 2023, Emily GT programme director Peter Dahl told Swedish publication Carup that “everything is in place” to take the striking EV into production. It was around a year and a half away from readiness. The Emily GT appeared to have been saved by Canadian start-up EV Electra in December 2023, but the deal collapsed the following May as EV Electra opted to build the car in Italy, not Trollhättan. Polestar moved into part of the Trollhättan plant in 2023, using it as a research and development centre, but it is no longer a factory. The new auction therefore heralds the end of an era for the storied centre, opened in 1947. Eight cars will be available: seven examples of the Saab 9-3, plus one Hengchi 5 – a mid-size electric SUV produced by Evergrande. Of the 9-3s, three are pre-production cars built in 2014, a further three are electric prototypes built by NEVS before the model’s launch in China, and one is a test car fitted with a range-extender hybrid powertrain. They will be offered on Swedish auction site Klaravik from 21 May, with no reserve. Saab enthusiasts and bidders will be offered a tour of the Trollhättan plant on 30 May, the same day the auctions close.
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