Throughout the century-long changes in the automotive industry, from the initial steam vehicle to the fuel vehicle, and then from the current fuel vehicle to the new energy vehicle, under the big wave, many car companies have fallen in the torrent of the times, which is inevitably many regrettable brands.
Saab, once known as "the unity of man and car, flying close to the ground" and "the king of the forerunner", is undoubtedly a bright pearl in the history of the automobile industry, but even with such a loud name, Saab finally disappeared in people's eyes, so what happened to it?
Born to glory: the rapidly growing Saab cars
Saab Motors was formerly known as the Swedish Aircraft Co., Ltd., but after the end of World War II, the fighter jet market continued to shrink, making it no longer able to make "war money" and set its sights on the automotive field. Therefore, in 1944, Saab transformed the aircraft production line into an automobile production line, and the famous Saab automobile came into being.
With experience in the manufacture of aircraft, Saab models are designed with aerodynamic principles, which directly establishes its sporty image and runs through the entire history of Saab Motors. Sure enough, Saab's subsequent 92, 93, 94, 96, 97, 99 and other models sold well, and quickly became popular in the 1950s and 1970s, not only in Sweden, but also overseas.
One of the famous Saab 99 models, which combined the practicality of a hatchback with the handsome styling of a sports car, was a great success when it was launched, and what made this car go down in history was the world's first 2.0T turbocharged engine. At that time, during the oil crisis, many automakers wanted to make a breakthrough in turbocharging technology, but at the time, this technology was a hard bone, and some manufacturers pessimistically believed that it would never be able to adapt to cars. But in the end, it was Saab who took the lead in winning the arms race, and the two-way improvement of power and fuel economy brought by turbocharging technology directly brought Saab's fame and sales to a new level.
While the civilian market was successful, Saab also achieved significant success in the rally arena at that time, not only winning the championship several times, but also defeating the porsche team that was famous at the time. In a European auto race held in 1956, a driver named Eric Carlsson drove Saab, which lasted for 13 days, traveled a total distance of more than 10,000 kilometers, traveled more than ten countries, and eventually became the only driver to finish the race, so Eric Carlsson was also known as Mr. Saab。 The other players were either overwhelmed by the vehicle, eliminated, or voluntarily abandoned.
After 1980, Saab focused on the development of the civilian car market and slowly faded out of the racing circle, but Eric Carlsson did not leave Saab, he set up the Saab Car Performance Stunt Group, and the wonderful performance brought Saab the name of "man-car integration, flying on the ground", and each of its performances can be said to be the carnival of Saab fans.
Turning points and declines: the "Universal-Saab" era
"Without a car accident, you never know why this car is sold so expensive" This joke is a true portrayal of Saab's car, because Saab has the ultimate pursuit of body safety, and the body material is the most generous in the industry, but it also brings extremely high costs, and even sells cars at a loss, even if the higher vehicle pricing has not alleviated this unfavorable situation.
In 1990, Saab was under great economic pressure, but Saab attracted investment from GM, eventually forming a joint venture of 50% of Saab and GM' respective shares. GM's motivation for purchasing Saab is to use the strong resources of its industry leader to make Saab a more outstanding high-end car brand. After that, Saab did also launch the Saab 900, Saab 9-3, Saab 9-5 with the participation of GM, which were successful models, but it was precisely because of GM's participation that Saab brought crisis.
In 2000, GM completely acquired Saab Motors, and the blue-based, clear silver label, gold crown on the head, and the winged eagle-headed sphinx became Saab's new icon. In the following years, the Saab 9-3, the second generation of the Sab 9-3, which perfectly inherited the design of the Sab 9X concept car, the Saab 9-2X, the first all-wheel-drive model, and saab 9-7X, Saab's first SUV, were introduced. To outsiders, Saab at this time seems to have an incomparably bright future.
Unbeknownst to them, the seeds that led to Saab's decline have been laid. In 2003, Saab's engine division was merged by GM's division in Germany, and then its marketing department in Europe was also integrated, which made Saab directly lose the right to speak at the product development level, which was GM's decision based on the same platform strategy. In 2004, Subaru STi's OEM car Saab 9-2X was launched, and Saab, without its own characteristics, was naturally not recognized by consumers, and the homogenization of products made subsequent models have also been coldly received by the market. A series of policies of general purposes have made Saab, who has lost himself, slowly move towards extinction.
At the end of 2008, GM, overwhelmed by the subprime mortgage crisis, sought assistance from the U.S. federal government and put the Saab brand, which had underperformed the market, on the shelves to find a home for it.
Fall to vanishing: Saab is like a cloud of smoke
As a former well-known brand, the news that Saab was peddled has attracted the attention of well-known car companies such as BMW, Geely, Fiat, and Hyundai. On December 14, 2009, BAIC Motor successfully won the bid and obtained the first generation of Saab 9-3 and Saab 9-5 production lines, and then created the Senova brand. On January 26, 2010, GM and SPYK reached an agreement, and Saab was officially sold to SPYK, at which point, Saab's GM era officially ended.
After spyker acquired Saab, it showed the outside world that it would develop new models as soon as possible, turn losses into profits, and shape the brand's characteristics, and General Motors will continue to provide the engine and gearbox required by Saab Motors according to the contract. Unfortunately, Saab was not able to be reborn in the hands of Spyker, and after Spyk's acquisition of Saab, there were financial problems and disputes with parts suppliers, and Saab was forced to stop production again. Subsequently, the distrustful Spyker negotiated with China's Huatai, Huge and Youth Group to sell Saab, and Huge provided him with an advance payment of 45 million euros, while the youth also invested 46 million euros.
However, because of GM's intervention, the Chinese car company's final acquisition of Saab was not achieved. Why did GM still influence Saab's acquisition after being sold to Spyker?
Saab, which has long lost its core competitiveness, many of its models are based on GM's technology, GM still has the technical ownership of Saab 9-4X after selling Saab to Spyker, and it also controls the supply chain of key components such as engines and transmissions, and more importantly, GM also has Saab's $326 million worth of redeemable preferred shares, enjoying the priority of remaining asset allocation.
Therefore, as soon as spyker negotiated with Chinese car companies, GM immediately said that it decided to terminate the authorization to supply auto parts and 9-4X models to Saab, and directly bankrupted the negotiations on the grounds that the acquisition of Saab by Chinese car companies would affect the shareholders' interests. The huge, young man ended up with only a little of Saab's skills, and suffered great economic losses because the money he had played in advance could not be fully recovered.
Helplessly, Saab was forced to file a bankruptcy application, and after the Swedish government approved it, the famous Swedish car brand officially became part of the history of the automobile industry. Much of its legacy was later acquired by The Chinese company's controlled Guoneng NEVS Electric Vehicle Company, which was acquired by Evergrande Motors in 2019.
The continuation of the "Saab gene"
Saab Motors has quietly left the market, but its genes are still in the automotive market. BAIC acquired its production line and used these technologies to create the Senova brand, so Semper's model has a strong Saab shadow, but BAIC failed to make good use of what Saab left behind, and the quality of the Squire brand is still criticized by consumers.
Evergrande Automobile, which also got the "Saab Gene" through the acquisition of NEVS, also wants to enter the field of new energy vehicles, but Evergrande, which has entered the high-profile market, has not yet sold a new energy vehicle, and "Saab Gene" can be said to be in a difficult situation.
Reflections brought about by Saab's fall
The story of Saab Motors is lamentable, and the glorious history of the past has not been able to support it to continue to move forward, which has also brought many reflections to the modern automobile company. GM did not take advantage of the technical advantages of its brands, but used the wrong strategy to turn its pontik, Saab and OzMobil models into similar "OEM cars", which eventually led to the disappearance of these brands in the torrent of history. Therefore, avoiding product homogenization can be said to be what modern car companies must do, once there is no core competitiveness, the development of the industry will only be abandoned by the times.
Compared with the case of Geely's successful acquisition of Volvo, BAIC did not make use of the new technology it brought after getting Saab's production line, and transformed the technology absorption into its own advantages, and did not do enough in innovation; on the contrary, Geely, when it acquired Volvo, it asked many companies to evaluate, almost pulling the Volvo bottoms over and over again; and the youth and the huge because they did not do their due diligence work and "stepped on the thunder" and suffered huge losses. The lessons learned are also worth learning from those who come after.
Write at the end
Tim Urquhart, an analyst at GlobalVision, once said: "Saab is a truly brilliant brand, but it is managed by some people who do not understand the meaning of this brand... If it had been operated the right way 20 years ago, Saab would have been Sweden's Audi. ”
I don't know if Saab, who once "united people and cars and flew close to the ground", can be reproduced in the future, even if it is no longer in Saab's name.