A Saab-badged car has rolled off the production line in Sweden for the first time since a Chinese-backed consortium took over the ailing carmaker last year.
The prototype made at the Trollhatten plant is based on the mid-sized Saab 9-3 and is very similar to the model discontinued in 2011. That car was first introduced nine years earlier.
The vehicle is a test-bed for a new petrol-engine version and later an completely revamped electric Saab, said Johan Andersson, a spokesman for National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) which bought Saab out of bankruptcy last August. The company is owned by a Chinese-Japanese renewable energy investor.
Talks with around 500 suppliers are in the final stages and more than 300 staff have been recruited to limber up for series assembly, Andersson told Swedish Radio.
Saab belonged to US car giant General Motors until the beginning of 2010 and was later taken over by Dutch boutique sports car maker Spyker. Saab was declared bankrupt in December 2011 although the production lines had fallen silent months earlier. Saab was sold to the Chinese-backed company in June 2012.