National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) is declining to confirm reports it will start production next month of the Saab 9-3 at its Trollhattan plant.
Speculation has mounted manufacture would begin imminently at the site around one hour north of Gothenburg, but NEVS is pouring cold water on the suggestion.
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“We have not started production yet – we have not contracted all suppliers we need for parts,” a NEVS spokesman told just-auto from Sweden.
“Before we have 100% of all parts, we are not able to start. We have the vast majority, but not all yet. We have access to the plant of course and we produce spare parts for Saab Parts, but we have not started our own production yet.”
NEVS has been recruiting staff since last autumn for a potential restart later this year, initially of the conventionally-powered 9-3 model, with the intention of proposed electric vehicle manufacture in 2014.
“We are continuously preparing for the start of production – I think we are today 200 employees and 100 consultants – we will be more of course when we can start production,” said the NEVS spokesman.
“We have leaders and pilot teams in place to prepare – we will obviously start on a small scale.”
NEVS is declining to reveal the total staff it is aiming to recruit – Saab formally employed around 4,000 people at Trollhattan before it entered bankruptcy in late 2011 – but any restart will clearly provide a welcome boost to to the town.
