The goal is to turn the company into an exclusivist one and have a market share that will appear to be much bigger than it really is. Simonsson even has in mind the kind of people that will buy the Swedish cars: “entrepreneurs, dentists, doctors and agency people," he was quoted as saying by autocar.co.uk.
In the longer term Saab doesn’t have to be a very big company to be viable. Saab's director claims the company can be profitable with only 150,000 cars being produced per year. In 2007, for instance, they produced 136,000 units .Simonsson also claimed the company was "profitable in Europe for the last two or three years", suggesting it is in the US market that the company is losing money.
Saab currently has three models on the market, the 9-3 and the 9-5, made at Trollhattan and the 9-7x model, which is being manufactured by GM. Upon separation, Saab will launch its own 9-5 Saloon.
Saab was originally created as a division of the Swedish Aeroplane Company (Svensk Aeroplan Aktiebolag). The company had been established in 1937 for the express purpose of building aircraft for the Swedish Air Force. With World War II nearing its end, the company began looking for new markets in which to expand.
In 1944, Project 92 began, with the goal of creating the first Saab passenger car. Saab remains a largely unknown car manufacturer, far from being the exclusivist car Knut Simonsson hopes for. "We don't want to be another Audi," he said. Don't worry. You're not.
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