Jun 30, 2008

Joy in Trollhattan

Happiness reigns in the pleasant southwestern Swedish town of Trollhattan, because Saab’s parent company, General Motors, has allocated production of the next-generation 9-3 to the plant located there. While from the outside it might seem a no-brainer that the next Saab would be built in the Saab factory, the matter has actually been much-discussed within the halls of GM Europe. Furthermore, a shift of production to a non-Saab factory would not be unprecedented. The Saab 9-7X SUV is built in a GM plant in Ohio. The decision by GM Europe President and Chairman of the Saab Board Carl-Peter Forster to keep 9-3 production in Sweden was greeted warmly by Saab employees and Saab fans from around the world.

“This is obviously extremely positive news for our organization and the region and a clear signal of the confidence in our ability to deliver world-class production quality and efficiency,” said Saab Automobile AB Managing Director Jan-Åke Jonsson. “Since Trollhattan had been allocated production of the next-generation global GM compact vehicles in April of 2007, it’s really good to know we can start focusing on building a range of next-generation Saab 9-3 vehicles.”

Trollhattan has been home to Saab’s automobile manufacturing since its very first car, the 92, rolled off the line in 1949. Today approximately 1,700 employees are involved in producing the current-generation Saab 9-3 and 9-5 in Sweden.