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Excuse the home French in the headline.
The following is a lightly edited press release from Saab France.
It’s good to hear some positive news coming out of Europe. France, Germany and Spain could all use a lift.
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Saab is the market leader in flex-fuel in France
* Saab is positioned as the top Flex-Fuel brand in the French market with its BioPower models in 2008
* The Saab 9-3 is the best selling Flex-Fuel car
* Saab sets record for sales of convertibles in France
After a Christmas marked by removing the penalty on BioPower, the year began well for Saab with a cascade of good news.
The most important first: the Saab brand ranks first in the French market for flex-fuel vehicles, with 1028 cars sold during the year 2008, divided between 9-3 and 9-5. It is a just reward for the Swedish manufacturer with an emphasis on responsible performance through the use of bioethanol. Saab now offers its entire range with BioPower engine running on E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline), a fuel with a much less heavy footprint on the environment…..
……This performance attribute has been an assets for the Saab 9-3, which won the most sales BioPower in 2008, allowing it also to rank the best selling flex-fuel vehicles in France, with 882 units. The Saab 9-3 is available with two BioPower engines in all its versions: Sport Sedan, Sport Combi and Sport Cabriolet, with manual or automatic.
Thanks to supercharging, the BioPower can unleash the full potential of ethanol fuel (which octane is 105 RON, higher than that of gasoline) to deliver more horsepower, while significantly reducing emissions CO2 fossil when it works at superéthanol E85: the Saab posted a gain of 25 to 30 hp more and running on E85 compared with gasoline. This technology has already enabled Saab to rise in Europe at the forefront of emerging market vehicle fuels or multiple Flex-Fuel.
A situation which breeds in France, and who can now enjoy the balance of taxation intervened late last year, the last Finance Act shall apply to vehicles Flex-Fluel a 40% reduction on rates ‘emissions of carbon dioxide. This means that Saab BioPower are neutral vis-à-vis the environmental penalties.
Happiness never comes alone. Saab recorded other areas of good performance: a just reward for the efforts on the renewal of products, which will continue over the coming months.
The Saab 9-3 convertible achieves record sales in France with 547 units sold in 2008……
……The Saab 9-3 Convertible has a level of rigidity, quality of construction and comfort that place at the top of his class. Innovative in many ways, the car goes even further in the philosophy of Saab, which for a convertible should be “more than just a convertible in to ride every day of the year.
The range of engines supplied available on the Cabriolet offers a choice of three fuels: gasoline, diesel or Superéthanol (E85). At its summit is the V6 2.8-liter supercharged engine developing 280 hp (206 kW), followed by a powerful dual-stage turbo with a torque of 400 Nm, and two engines Flex-Fuel Saab BioPower.
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Eduard(Edusaab)
// Jan 9, 2009 at 12:21 am
Here in Spain, there isn’t quite much petrol stations with Ethanol. And Spain is one of the biggest producers of Ethanol in Europe.
The government isn’t interested to promote the Ethanol or other biofuels. They announced measures to do it, but only for the Biodiesel and nothing important. They anounced a renewal of the government car fleet for enviromentally friendly cars, big part of the flexfuel, but no incentives for the purschase and new petrol stations with Ethanol. And everyday they are arguing that are doing a lot for be enviromentally friendly and meet the Kyoto protocole, but we are one of the worst countries in the world that accepted the protocole and don’t comply with it.
The last thing is that many car makers don’t recommend the use of Biodiesel in its Diesel cars. For example SAAB, in the 1.9TID and TTID in the owners manual its says it and there is one TSB about it, it could cause a lot of damage in the fuel pump and injection system.
2 Karen
// Jan 9, 2009 at 12:49 am
Good news for GMUSA review (?) as I believe infrastructure for flex-fuel at gas stations is very high on the new Congressional agenda. Despite our current infatuation with corn ethanol, by 2011 cellulosic ethanol will be in significant production in Massachusetts at the least. Maybe GM can sell into Brazil, which has the most extensive flex-fuel infrastructure.
3 Dippen
// Jan 9, 2009 at 2:53 am
this is good news indeed and specially in this financial situation.
4 Rune (the other one)
// Jan 9, 2009 at 3:12 am
Good link for finding your nearest E85 pump in Europe: http://etanol.nu/databasen.php
On my trek to Beograd, I could not find a single pump. On my way back to Oslo, I used the database and was able to find a handful pumps in that got me as far as Germany. From there it was just too much hassle leaving the autobahn every time I needed fuel, so I did not bother…
5 Golfhunter
// Jan 9, 2009 at 8:01 am
Vive la France !! The new Saab paradise !!! Actually it’s true that the french Saab Forum called Saab Sport Club (with the permission of Saab ) welcomes almost everyday new members who have recently bought a brand new Saab .It’s amazing !