National Electric Vehicle Sweden, the Saab-owning Swedish holding company that is in turn owned by Chinese investors, has some problems (i.e., no cash). But that isn’t stopping NEVS from showing off a prototype Saab 9-3 Electric Vehicle this week.
But wait, you might be saying, didn’t NEVS already start production of a 9-3 EV? Yes, indeed, and the vehicle displayed this week was indeed built at the Saab plant in Trollhättan in May as one of those early pilot builds.
A modified Saab 9-3 Aero Sedan, the EV has had the lithium-ion battery pack jammed under the floor, so all of the cargo and passenger space of the gas-powered 9-3 remains available.
“The starting point for our development of the Electric Vehicle project was to maintain all the good attributes and characteristics,” said NEVS’ vice president of engineering and product development, Stig Nodin in a statement. You can find the press release below.
The li-ion pack comes from Beijing National Battery Technology (which is owned by the same company that owns NEVS) and can offer a range of about 193 km, NEVS says. The prototype also has a 100-kW electric motor that offers 140 horsepower that provides a 0-60 miles per hour time of 10 seconds and a top speed of just 102 km per hour.
That’s unlikely to be fast enough to outrun Saab’s creditors, but NEVS says that the prototype is here “to serve as a reference for specification of coming production model(s),” so let’s hope the speed number can be increased while the range at least stays the same.
Source: green.autoblog.com
