Saab gets China cash – plans Saab 9-1, 9-6 and 9-7

Saab has revealed a binding agreement worth €245 million with Chinese companies Youngman and Pang Da for joint production and distribution in China.

You’ve got to hand it to Victor Muller – he really is the master of fundraising.

With seemingly all the promise for potential investors of a chocolate teapot, Victor has managed to move pushing on €100 million in to Saab (Swedish Automobile N.V) in the last month. But even that wasn’t enough to kick-start production and tidy up all the unpaid wages and bills.

Now Saab has announced that a binding agreement has been signed between Saab and Chinese companies Youngman and Pang Da for a joint venture to build and distribute Saabs in China. And it’s worth €245 million to Saab’s coffers.

Tied up in this deal – which still needs regulatory approval (not a foregone conclusion) – is the return of Vladimir Antonov to an official role as investor and the production of three new models – the Saab 9-1, Saab 9-6 and Saab 9-7. Nothing if not ambitious.

Where that leaves Victor’s plans to produce a Saab 9-2 (unless he’s now decided it should be the Saab 9-1) using the MINI platform and BMW engines we don’t know. Maybe it’s still on; after all, €245 million is a lot of dosh but not really enough to start producing bespoke platforms and engines.

There’s no word on what exactly the Saab 9-6 and Saab 9-7 are, although we can hazard a guess that the Saab 9-6 will be a bigger saloon or SUV aimed at the Chinese market and the Saab 9-7 could be a production version of the Saab Aero-X, a car that Victor Muller has said drew him to Saab in the first place.

Saab are still fighting.