Koenigsegg, the Swedish supercar builder and “ex-new” owner of Saab, once teamed with electronics firm NLV Solar AG to build the Saab Quant, a luxurious solar-electric prototype vehicle. Access to Saab’s production facilities was supposed to help speed the Quant into series production, but…
These are sketches that show what was supposed to be this premium solar-electric car, then a potential competitor Tesla’s Model S.
The Quant was a co-project with Sweden’s NLV Solar AG, whose photovoltaics and accumulator technology inhabit the concept car. It debuted in 2009 at the Geneva motor show as a test platform for a unique propulsion system that combines NLV’s solar tech with an accumulator storage battery the company says can charge up in 20 minutes for a 311-mile range.
Wouldn’t have changed anything, what was needed was a decent reasonable volume car to keep GM on-board. The 9-3 was almost there, it should have been revised before the 9-5 and marketed at a slightly higher price point.
The last 9-3 killed SAAB. It was too generic looking for the price. The 9-5, 9-4, ,9-7 (needed a better interior).were fine…but the bread and butter car…was just a car. And even that would have been fine with different marketing. The only worse dealership experience is Porsche…Volvo is 98% as bad.
The NG 900 mutated to the OG 9-3, along with the 9-5’s introduction in 1999. Both were based on older, revamped Opel platforms. The 9-3 would morph to GM’s then currant, epsilon platform in 2003, with the 9-5 expected to follow, in 2007. Following that, and had GM not imploded, the…now facelifted.. 9-3’s replacement would have been developed on the newly revised Epsilon II platform.