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More Jan-Ake Jonsson from Detroit

January 13th, 2009 · 13 Comments



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Reuters have another interesting article from the Detroit Auto Show including some quotes and thoughts from Jan-Ake Jonsson, Saab Sweden’s chief.

First of all, whilst sales were down in the US, Saab did manage to achieve one of their objectives by lifting the margins on vehicles sold there, to the point where they’re actually capable of making a positive contribution to the company:

“We lost more than the market in terms of sales last year but our profitability went the other way around in the U.S. because we have increased prices, we have repackaged the specifications of our vehicles, we have exited from some sales channels that were not profitable,” Saab Managing Director Jan-Ake Jonsson told Reuters……

……”Instead of having a negative contribution on our vehicles here, we now have a positive contribution,” the Saab chief said in an interview on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show.

——

There’s a lot of argy-bargy right now and it’s all got a very nationalistic tone. Sweden will support Saab with some funding guarantees but that funding can only be spent in Sweden, meaning that production of the next Saab 9-5 might end up moving back to Trollhattan from it’s scheduled base in Russelsheim, Germany.

One would think, then, that the Saab 9-4x – to be built in Mexico – might be dead in the water.

Not so, if you listen to Jan-Ake. He’s still talking of the 9-4x in the present and future tense:

He said that the debut of the upcoming 9-4x crossover that will be built in Mexico and go on sale in 2010 would bolster the brand’s position in the United States by offering a natural hedge against harmful exchange rate effects that have plagued Swedish carmakers Saab and Volvo in recent years.

“For us the U.S. is pretty important. It’s our number one market. In our opinion we need to be here and we need to show that we can make money in this market independent of the exchange rate,” he said.

And finally, on the near future:

The company is pinning its hopes on the roll-out at the end of this year of its next generation 9-5, which it says could contribute peak annual sales of about 50,000 units.

It will also launch the 9-3x crossover in the middle of this year, a model it will display at the Geneva auto show this March.

I know there’s been some speculation that they might push forward the 9-5 to Geneva. I’d find that very, very surprising. Everything that I’ve heard points towards the 9-3x, as mentioned above.

And that’s a good thing. Saab need the 9-5 to get maximum exposure on the cusp of it’s production and release, and the time and place to do that will be later this year, most likely at Frankfurt.

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Tags: Saab News

13 responses so far ↓

  • 1 KroumNo Gravatar // Jan 13, 2009 at 2:03 pm

    So much riding on the new 9-5. It better be worth the wait!

  • 2 BruceNo Gravatar // Jan 13, 2009 at 2:06 pm

    Agreed, Kroum.
    B

  • 3 MarkacNo Gravatar // Jan 13, 2009 at 2:07 pm

    The US can have the 9-4x. Let’s have the 9-1 instead in the other markets that make up 80% of Saab sales.

  • 4 SAABoyNo Gravatar // Jan 13, 2009 at 2:15 pm

    As anxious as I am for the new 9-5, I cant help but think its gonna fail to meet all our ever-growing expectations from it. I really hope SAAB proves me wrong…

    At least todays styling with the new 9-3 is ‘cool’….to me…

  • 5 Eduard(Edusaab)No Gravatar // Jan 13, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    Reading every speech between lines, my deduction is that GM funds for saab all of that shit about GM commitment to Saab is gone. Because they are spending every dollar in the Cadillac SRX, but no dollars for the 9-4x???

    and how many of those 800 million that said Bob, were spend in the Theta premium platform?? amd how much hours and Swedish knowledge were spend in that project for GM, and the Caddy momy could have its new SRX??

    I will take one of those caddy, going to renaissance center and burn it in front of it.

  • 6 mr_ebbotNo Gravatar // Jan 13, 2009 at 5:45 pm

    I have a dream

    One day we will se this as the day when the tide changed…
    Saab getting lose from GM grip and the sales slowly grows to about 300 k vehicles a year.

  • 7 GrumpyNo Gravatar // Jan 13, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    Kroum, it is, but it couldn’t come soon enough anyway

  • 8 Black SaabathNo Gravatar // Jan 13, 2009 at 7:44 pm

    The Divorce of GM & SAAB – who gets what!

    GM
    + Make Money (By selling swedish production facilities + the rights to the Saab Brand, to G.O.C – Government Owned Company)
    + Save Money (By letting G.O.C fund the marketing of the Saab Brand)
    + Save Money (By letting G.O.C fund some engineering departments, developing joint parts for both GM & Saab) “Cash infusion”
    + Keep production units of 9-5 in gm-europes plants,
    + Keep production units of 9-4x in gm-america plants,

    Swedish Government
    + Total nr of production jobs maintained in sweden (convertible, 9-3, 9-1 combined)
    + More enginering and design jobs by moving some departments from Germany.
    + Getting more swedish companies to supply parts to Saab and other GM brands.

    There is though something dark on the horizone though. I expect the german government and the
    cunning unions to travel to Detroit aswell. Maybe creating a bidding-war of where production of
    next 9-5 will go. And Im sure that Detroit can use that to force the swedish government to accept
    production to stay at the german GM factory.

  • 9 ctmNo Gravatar // Jan 13, 2009 at 8:22 pm

    Black Saabath,

    And Im sure that Detroit can use that to force the swedish government to accept production to stay at the german GM factory.

    I’m not sure. I don’t think the Swedish government will give in. If they say no to government aid, that means a panic sale or close-down of Saab and that will cost GM a lot. If what I think is about to happen will happen, then it is up to Saab to decide were they want to have the production. If it is cheaper and more suitable to have it in Germany, they will pay GM to have it there. Otherwise, it will be in Sweden and there is nothing the German unions can do about it.

  • 10 saabista63No Gravatar // Jan 13, 2009 at 9:38 pm

    I do agree with ctm.
    What we see here is a rather ironic situation: The dinosaurs of globalized economy asking national governments for support – and the conflicts arising therefrom.
    Of course, the Swedish government is responsible to Swedish taxpayers – and I can tell you, they pay more taxes than in the worst American nightmare – for what they do with the money they take from the Swedish citizens.
    Of course, the Swedes are not going to pay a single Kronor into Buick or Hummer!
    They are proud of Volvo and Saab, because these are SWEDISH brands – and that’s it.

    So, what might happen is that GM are more or less forced to change their plans of more or less disintegrating Saab into a label to stick onto Chevrolets or Opels as to able to put premium stickers on those cars.

    IF the Swedish government is able to make a stand – and that’s what things look like now – then GM might have to give Saab more independence also in R&D, bring the 9-5 back to Trollhättan and so on. I’m not sure if that is going to happen, but if there has ever been a chance since 2000, then it is here – and now.

    Yours

    saabista63

  • 11 BernardNo Gravatar // Jan 13, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    Eduard,

    It’s not fair to claim that GM’s money is going to the SRX instead of the 9-4x. The vast majority of the cost for creating a new car goes to tooling and R&D. Both of these are mostly shared between the SRX and the 9-4x. There are going to be slight tooling differences, but mostly for cosmetic stuff. The R&D money’s been spent by now.

    As far as Sweden vs Germany for the 9-5, I think that the choice at this point is Sweden vs. nothing at all. No one is going to spend money (or guarantee loans) to build a Swedish car in Germany, so the German unions should just accept that they are not getting the 9-5 either way.

  • 12 MailrNo Gravatar // Jan 14, 2009 at 3:19 am

    Note this quote from Carl-Peter Forster (Dagens Industri). “Most tools for 9-5 and 9-4X are made, but not paid for. That will be done until they are delivered. We have 60, 70, 80 percent of the tools ordered and in some way we have to pay.”

    So there are a lot of tools that are not in place yet. I have a feeling this is the reason we haven’t seen any spy pictures of the 9-5 yet, and the use of the Insignia mule at this late stage. My guess is that some suppliers may basically demand cash to deliver, I most certainly would if I were to deliver something to a company that claims they may go broke in a matter of months. As the tools most likely aren’t delivered yet, it’s a lot easier to reroute them to Trollhättan (and maybe the only chance for GM/Saab to get hold of them).

  • 13 ctmNo Gravatar // Jan 14, 2009 at 5:38 am

    Mailr,

    Good point. I know that they make real models of new cars, both exterior and interior to finalize the design process. But the complete cars they test out in the wild from like one year before the planned start of production… Are they hand built or are they built the same way the final product will be, using the same tool on a small assembly line?