In the latest developments on GM’s planned divestment of its Saab brand, GM executives have continued to talk tough on closure prospects while reports have surfaced that the new 9-5 production line may be shipped to China for the car to be rebranded as a Buick.
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A report in Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri said GM may send the tooling to China for use in the production of the new 9-5 as a Buick. Chinese media said that the new 9-5 production line could be relocated into Shanghai General Motors (Shanghai GM).
However, GM executives forcefully denied the reports and said there were no plans to sell tooling or engineering for the new 9-5 to another carmaker. That model will not be relaunched under another GM brand such as Buick, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said.
“It may be, unfortunately, that it just never sees the light of day,” he told reporters in Detroit.
GM is also maintaining pressure on last minute bidders by talking tough on closure prospects and emphasising that wind-down is continuing.
“We’re closing down Saab,” GM Chairman and acting Chief Executive Ed Whitacre told reporters in Detroit yesterday.
Lutz appeared to offer a little more hope to potential bidders when he said that GM would press ahead with closing down Saab ‘unless a new bid emerged that was financially better for us than the wind-down’.
Joran Hagglund, Sweden’s state secretary for industry, told Reuters that GM representatives had conveyed the message that Saab was unlikely to be saved by an eleventh-hour deal, although he maintains hope that a deal can still be done. “Our impression is that the consideration of the bids still continues. Based on that there is a small, small chance that there can be a sale of Saab,” Hagglund added.
Spyker Chief Executive Victor Muller continues to strike a relatively optimistic tone concerning Spyker’s bid prospects. He said that while GM “had hit the wind-down button” on Saab, that decision could still be reversed. Reuters reported that he expects to meet with GM representatives and with Hagglund in Detroit this week.
Saab restarted production in Trollhattan yesterday after a four-week holiday break.
