Photo: z__gravity / Instagram
Back in the day when Opel was still part of General Motors, another important European car manufacturer that belonged to the biggest of the Big Detroit Three wasn't Britain's Vauxhall – it was Sweden's Saab, instead.
Saab Automobile AB was an automotive manufacturer established in Sweden in 1945 as an off-shoot of its parent company Saab AB – better known today for its JAS 39 Gripen multirole fighter. During its tumultuous history, the brand was re-established as an independent company in 1989, and GM took a 50% interest in it before acquiring full ownership in 2000.
Their implication was short-lived, as GM sold Saab to Spyker in 2010, and after that, all hell broke loose with subsequent failed attempts to acquire and resurrect some of its models. Ultimately, all parties involved called it quits, and the brand died an undignified death somewhere around 2016. In recent years, some have shown what could have been if the planets aligned better, but ultimately, the last Saabs were produced without the sacred name attached to them as NEVS products.
However, that doesn't mean the Swedish brand – once a proud rival for the other well-known Scandinavian automotive company Volvo – has been forgotten by true believers. One of them might also be Grimaud Gervex, better known as z__gravity on social media. This automotive designer was originally part of a six-student team from the prestigious design school ISD-Rubika in Valenciennes, France, which took the Gran Premio Assoluto from Ferrari's 2015 Top Design School Contest.
After that, we lost track of his whereabouts until recently, when he came up with the idea of resurrecting the defunct Saab brand as a side gig. His main activities now involve working for Lucid Motors, and as far as we can tell, the pixel master is part of the hard-working team that designed Lucid's second-only product, the newly introduced Gravity SUV.
So, with that major experience behind him (he's a Senior Exterior Designer), it is no wonder that his vision as part of the imaginative realm of digital car content creators for a reborn Saab model would be to come up with a Scandinavian 'Land Rover' SUV, right? Dubbed simply as the 'Saab Rover,' this is a minimalist design project of a futuristic Saab SUV fueled solely by electricity – and it looks adventurous enough to oppose the upcoming Range Rover EV, at least across fantasy land.
In the end, though, of course, this is just a styling exercise, and all chances of ever seeing a Saab automobile on the market are mostly wishful thinking. Of course, Saab AB still holds the rights to the name, so it's not impossible – only extremely unlikely. On the other hand, the Lucid Gravity is an SUV that's coming in real life, and as it aims to "redefine the future of SUVs," it will arrive to battle the Tesla Model X with a projected range of more than 440 miles (708 km), over 800 hp peak power, seating for up to seven, and a zero to 60 mph (96 kph) time of just 3.5 seconds.
So, if money is no object of concern, which one would you choose – this hypothetical Saab Rover EV that looks adventurous enough to get you to a high-end retreat in the middle of the desert or the real world's Lucid Gravity?
Their implication was short-lived, as GM sold Saab to Spyker in 2010, and after that, all hell broke loose with subsequent failed attempts to acquire and resurrect some of its models. Ultimately, all parties involved called it quits, and the brand died an undignified death somewhere around 2016. In recent years, some have shown what could have been if the planets aligned better, but ultimately, the last Saabs were produced without the sacred name attached to them as NEVS products.
However, that doesn't mean the Swedish brand – once a proud rival for the other well-known Scandinavian automotive company Volvo – has been forgotten by true believers. One of them might also be Grimaud Gervex, better known as z__gravity on social media. This automotive designer was originally part of a six-student team from the prestigious design school ISD-Rubika in Valenciennes, France, which took the Gran Premio Assoluto from Ferrari's 2015 Top Design School Contest.
After that, we lost track of his whereabouts until recently, when he came up with the idea of resurrecting the defunct Saab brand as a side gig. His main activities now involve working for Lucid Motors, and as far as we can tell, the pixel master is part of the hard-working team that designed Lucid's second-only product, the newly introduced Gravity SUV.
So, with that major experience behind him (he's a Senior Exterior Designer), it is no wonder that his vision as part of the imaginative realm of digital car content creators for a reborn Saab model would be to come up with a Scandinavian 'Land Rover' SUV, right? Dubbed simply as the 'Saab Rover,' this is a minimalist design project of a futuristic Saab SUV fueled solely by electricity – and it looks adventurous enough to oppose the upcoming Range Rover EV, at least across fantasy land.
In the end, though, of course, this is just a styling exercise, and all chances of ever seeing a Saab automobile on the market are mostly wishful thinking. Of course, Saab AB still holds the rights to the name, so it's not impossible – only extremely unlikely. On the other hand, the Lucid Gravity is an SUV that's coming in real life, and as it aims to "redefine the future of SUVs," it will arrive to battle the Tesla Model X with a projected range of more than 440 miles (708 km), over 800 hp peak power, seating for up to seven, and a zero to 60 mph (96 kph) time of just 3.5 seconds.
So, if money is no object of concern, which one would you choose – this hypothetical Saab Rover EV that looks adventurous enough to get you to a high-end retreat in the middle of the desert or the real world's Lucid Gravity?
Google News