Swedish, Chinese and Japanese engineers are to be recruited for Saab from this autumn in an initial wave of staffing by the automaker’s new owners, who insist no government funding has been requested.
National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) is due to make a final – undisclosed – payment to Saab’s receivers at some point this summer with the new engineers looking to transform the existing 9-3 model from an internal combustion engine vehicle to an electric derivative due for production either next year or early 2014.
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Scandinavian supplier body, FKG, recently told just-auto it saw a need for around 200 engineers to work on the project, although the new consortium is remaining tight-lipped as to precise numbers and any future blue-collar requirements.
“We don’t have estimates of jobs and we don’t want to make estimates,” a NEVS spokesman told just-auto from Sweden. “At first there will be engineers…Swedish, Chinese and Japanese engineers in Trollhattan. The first mission is to design the 9-3 into an electric car.
“We have no employees today, but the management team is being built up now and after that we will recruit engineers this autumn.
“Since the bankruptcy, some people have obviously moved to other businesses, but we think our business plan is attractive enough for us to be successful in recruitment. We don’t know what number of jobs we could create.”
Around 4,000 workers were made redundant following Saab’s bankruptcy at the end of last year, with Sweden’s government enduring a storm of criticism from what some perceived as a laissez-faire attitude towards the struggling automaker, but NEVS insists it has not asked Stockholm for any financial assistance.
“We are not relying on financial governmental support – we have not asked for any such support either,” said the NEVS spokesman. “We have no government support from the Swedish or any other government.
“We have no government guarantee or anything like that – it is totally private.”
Saab’s main blue collar union, IF Metall will be watching with keen interest for news of any jobs for its members.
The union estimates up to 40% of metalworkers in Trollhattan are redundant because of Saab’s situation.
Around 1,600 engineers were previously employed at the site.
