There’s a reason you haven’t heard about Saab in years. The Swedish automaker, which has become a favorite among guys who run Instagram accounts devoted to aesthetically pleasing vintage cars they see on the street, went bankrupt and its assets were bought by a company called National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) in 2012. Yes, the Saab legacy has been covertly continuing in the EV space, and now, we finally know what that looks like.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that NEVS had secretly developed an electric car called the Emily GT. According to Carup, a Swedish car blog, not only was a driveable concept of the EV created in the span of 10 months between 2019 and 2020, with help from engineers who had previously worked at Saab, but the vehicle packs some unbelievable specs: The Emily makes use of innovative in-wheel motor technology and the largest possible 175 kWh battery supposedly offers a range over 1,000 km (that’s around 620 miles), which would put it over 100 miles ahead of the longest-range EV available in the U.S. today.
The operative word there is “unbelievable.” While it’s a great underdog story — Saab crashing and burning, then rising from the ashes and building an EV to finally challenge Tesla — the reality behind all this hubbub is less than glamorous.
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The classic Swedish car is an affordable dream, but it’s hardly practicalThe only reason we’re getting access to this information about the Emily GT, according to Carup, is because the parent of NEVS has put the company into “hibernation” and is looking to sell it off. In essence, this 620-mile, Saab-influenced EV is the shiny bait to entice a potential buyer.
Who is this parent company trying to offload NEVS? China’s Evergrande Group, a real-estate behemoth who you may remember from its debt crisis in 2021 that sent shockwaves through the country as well as financial markets around the world. According to Carup, before the pandemic “Evergrande and NEVS had plenty of money,” but the fallout from the global crisis and Evergrande’s own flaterings have apparently led to this fledgling EV company fizzling out.
They’re trying to put on a happy face, though. Plint Marketing, which is located in the same Swedish city as NEVS, Trollhättan, documented the creation of the Emily GT, and they’ve released a number of photos and videos of the process. One of the documentary-style videos even features Christian von Koenigsegg, founder and CEO of the Swedish hypercar maker that bears his name, driving one of the prototypes.
“My first impression?” Koenigsegg says in the video. “Very relaxing drive. The torque vectoring, you can really feel it. Very, very impressed.”
Will a potential buyer be similarly impressed? We’ll have to wait and see. For now, Saab fans will just have to make do with the gas-powered models still puttering around.
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