Saab’s story continues under the NEVS banner and the Emily GT model name, but we’re no less intrigued by its ending than when the company and its cars were called Saab. Last year a A Swedish company called Stenhaga Invest bought 80% of the Stallback factory and office convoluted in Trollhattan, where Saab built its cars, while NEVS retained the final 20%. On the product side, an unknown European investor has signed a letter of intent to purchase two of NEVS’s 13 transport projects, Emily GT and PONS, an autonomous shuttle. Svante Andersson, who heads Stenhaga, he apparently said the anonymous investor is interested in taking control of a “significant area” of Trollhattan facilities and employing “a significant number of people”.
The unnamed investor is actually from the Middle East, via Canada, a company called EV Elektra, led by CEO Jihad Mohammed, headquartered in Ontario with operations in three European countries. Mohammed said his company was trying to make a deal with Stenhaga for space in Trollhattan, with the aim of maintaining the spirit of the Swedish Saab, but both sides could not reach an agreement. EV Electra bought a factory in Italy, without saying where or what cars will be produced. The company praised it Quds Nostrum electric sports car before the acquisition of Emily and PONS, making Nostrum a candidate for Italy. AND Mohammed wrote in a post on LinkedIn that “We have more than [a] now several models, after many acquisitions that have taken place in [the] the last two months, and there’s one more thing happening this week that will keep us at the top of our game.”
However, the CEO has already promised that the Emily GT will roll off the production lines this year, so we expect it to be one of the products. However, it plans to show versions of one of the EV products in June with delivery in August “for 2025 models.” This sounds too close to be Emily GT.
PONS will likely be a few years away, given how much preparation and infrastructure autonomous shuttles need. Everyone in the industry will be eagerly awaiting the launch of Rimac’s Project3 autonomous shuttle this summer.
To recap, the standard Emily GT’s specification now includes four doors, five seats, a 175kW battery, energetic air suspension, four in-wheel motors with 121hp each, for a total of 484hp and a range of 621hp. miles in the WLTP cycle. The performance version would enhance total power to 653 hp and 1,623 Nm, reaching 100 km per hour in 3.2 seconds. There are rumors that lower trim levels will offer 140 kWh or 105 kWh batteries. There are also mockups of a coupe, convertible and station wagon. Mohammed said that once investors are informed about Electra’s EV plans, the company will issue a press release that will answer many of our questions.
