More 9-1 info, or not….and a request for Saab
A few things drifted onto the internets while I was sleeping….
egmcartech have a post lifted from a Finnish forum where they’re stating that the car now being referred to more and more as the 9-x BioHybrid that we’ll see in Geneva will have a hybrid-power assisted 1.4 litre BioPower engine making around 200hp. They also mention a new-to-Saab level of seamless connectivity for media devices such as iPods etc.
So is this news?
Sort of, and sort of not. I’ve posted previously on the BioPower and hybrid capabilities of this car, and the BioHybrid name. I did it just over a week ago, actually. I haven’t posted a specific horsepower number, so it’ll be interesting to see what it finally comes out at. I have heard Kjell AC Bergstrom, Saab’s Powertrain guy, mention engines of this displacement putting out 150hp per litre before, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see that it’s accurate.
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Something that IS new news is a tip I received about some of the interior materials of the car. Check out this site and you’ll see what is possibly part of the interior trim that we’ll see. There’s a new translucent line of materials there that would fit very well with Saab’s new Iceblock thematics.
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A quick request for Saab:
You’ve done very well this time around in keeping this vehicle secure prior to it’s launch. Congratulations. This is the first vehicle launch since the inception of this website where I haven’t had advance imagery of some sort forwarded to me by a source somewhere.
What that means, however, is that come 4.30am on Tuesday morning (my time), I’m going to be scrambling to get photos and details loaded here that people can see, rather than enjoying and absorbing whatever webcast might be available from the reveal event. It means that websites that don’t work their arse off for your benefit exclusively will get the jump on your enthusiasts.
Now that we’re so close to the unveiling, please consider forwarding the press materials so that they can be ready to roll - in full - at the release time.
If you think you can’t trust me with an embargo date and time, I’ll ask you this - how would you know?
You’ve never tried.
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To Saab: Swade would have quite an incentive to not let things slip before the embargo is lifted on photos: he’d never get any of this kind of cooperation in the future if he did.
Also, the websites who have leaked official photos early are not based only on Saab. TS is Saab-only so can’t afford to lose Saab support if it were to get it.
As for the engine in the 9-X (I really don’t like that name if they’re going to use it, because it’ll make it very confusing for us Saab aficionados. We all know what the 9-X concept was. That’d be like making a new concept and calling it the “EV-1″. Then we’d have to say, “no, not the 1985 EV-1, the 2009 one…” I mean, what’s the point?) I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 200 hp 1.4-liter engine even w/o the hybrid assist.
The 2.0 engine in the BioPower 100 running E100 (pure ethanol) put out 300 horsepower (150 hp/l). The 2.3 engine in the BioPower Beast running E85 put out 310 horsepower (135 hp/l). If you scale 135 hp/l (running E85) in a 1.4-liter engine you get 189 horsepower. But… both those prior concepts were port-injected. The likely addition of direct injection in the 9-X BioHybrid would yield close to 200 horsepower, even w/o the electric assist!
What was the output of the direct-injected 2.0T BioPower engine in the 9-4X? I don’t recall. Take that hp/l number and multiply it by 1.4 and that should give a good idea of the output of the 9-X BioHybrid, I would think.
Okay, I looked-into it. The 9-4X’s 2-liter direct-injected BioPower engine output 300 bhp on E85 (245 on gasoline). That’s 150 bhp/l. Not bad, as that’s equaling the efficiency of the BioPower 100 in horsepower-per-liter, but the BioPower 100 required E100 to generate that power. I guess that’s the advantage of the direct-injection engine. Imagine what the BioPower 100 could have done with a direct-injected engine. The press release for the BioPower 100 even said so much!
So using these numbers I estimate that a 1.4-liter direct-injected turbocharged engine in the 9-X BioHybrid should be able to output 210 bhp when running on E85 (172 bhp on gasoline), w/o electric motor assist.
BTW, I FINALLY just saw my first ‘08 9-3 on the road. It was in my rear view mirror. The signature lighting was an eye-catcher even though the sun was still out. It was a Pepper Green Metallic 2.0T sedan. Nice.
Why are we getting so excited about another concept car we could see for sale 2-3 years from now? Nobody is talking about the 9-4X anymore so the 9-1 probably will get the same kind of attention. Saab news is getting booooring..
I was at a Saab dealer last weekend and the most exciting car they had on the lot was a 2004 9-5 Aero Wagon. That says it all…
Saab is actually on it’s way to be a car company that releases more concept cars than real car during a whole decade…