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Saab tries [again] to emerge from bankruptcy

If we've learned one thing from watching The Walking Dead, it's that the only way to terminate a walker is with a swift and brutal blow to the brain. Sadly, no one has come along that's willing to do the gruesome deed to the stumbling shell that is Saab. The company's latest owner, National Electric Vehicle Sweden is trying, yet again, to crawl its way out of bankruptcy with a "composition proposal in order to exit the reorganization." That proposal, outlined in the attached press release, will see the majority of the company's many creditors receive full repayments. For 104 of the 573 creditors, all of whom have claims over 500,000 Swedish Krona (roughly $60,000), their claims will be reduced by 50 percent. If creditors approve the proposal, it'd provide "the conditions for completion of ongoing negotiations with two major OEMs," which the press release claims could come on as either a joint-venture partner in Trollhattan or a majority owner in the struggling company. We won't be holding our breath. Scroll down for the full press release from NEVS. Thursday, February 19, 2015 A composition to get Nevs out of reorganisation National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB, Nevs, provides unsecured creditors a composition proposal in order to exit the reorganisation. It creates the conditions for completion of ongoing negotiations with two major OEMs and the implementation of a new business plan together with partners and owners. Nevs' owners and management has noted the difficulty of completing this type of complex negotiations during a reorganisation and the risk premium it implies. The current negotiations, together with two major OEMs, are mainly focused on two tracks that are complementing each other. One is to form a technical joint venture company in Trollhattan and the other is to introduce a new majority owner in Nevs, with the plan of making Saab cars a global premium product. - The negotiations are progressing but we also see the complication of reaching an agreement when we are in a state of reorganisation. Our main owner has single-handedly financed the reorganisation and intends to get us out of it. In order for this to be possible financially, we need to reach a composition arrangement with the creditors, says Nevs CEO, Mattias Bergman. The composition proposal includes a composition of 50 percent for unsecured creditors on claims over 500'000 SEK.

NEVS' reorganization plan approved after all?

What a difference a day makes. Thursday, we reported that current Saab parent National Electric Vehicle Sweden had its application for creditor protection denied by the Swedish court for being "vague and completely undocumented." But NEVS was back in court on Friday, and this time the application was granted. However, the story continued to get weirder as defense contractor Saab AB allegedly revoked NEVS' rights to use the Saab name.
NEVS did put out a brief press release confirming the court decision saying: "The District court of Vänersborg, Sweden, today August 29 approved the application for reorganization from National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB." The company allegedly has over 90 creditors, and according to Reuters, it owes them roughly 400 million Swedish krona ($57.56 million). The business says that it is in negotiations with two, unnamed companies to get additional funding.
Also, according to Reuters, Saab AB, best known for making fighter planes, has revoked NEVS' rights to the Saab brand name because the company's application for creditor protection gave the defense contractor that right. When NEVS bought Saab, it only acquired the automaker's physical assets, and had to negotiate for the rights to use the name.

NEVS Sango autonomous shuttle rises from the ashes of Saab

National Electric Vehicles Sweden (NEVS), the company that purchased Saab's bankrupt carcass in 2012, has introduced an autonomous ride-sharing shuttle named Sango and announced plans to test it in real-world conditions. It also outlined a system named PONS that will allow operators and riders to connect with the shuttle. Saab famously claimed its cars were born from jets, but the Sango looks more like something you'd find in a store that sells small kitchen appliances than on an aircraft carrier sailing across the Atlantic. It wasn't designed to go fast, or to deliver engaging handling. Stylists intentionally gave it a boxy silhouette to maximize interior space and let operators offer three cabin configurations called private, social, and family, respectively. Its six seats can be moved around and rotated as needed, and the passengers can raise privacy walls if they don't feel like socializing with fellow riders. The shuttle's seating capacity drops to four with the walls raised. Chinese technology firm AutoX provided the Sango's self-driving hardware and software, though NEVS pointed out its shuttle is modular enough to use any autonomous system on the market. This is a wise strategy that widens its target audience. Operators will in theory be able to choose whether they want to purchase a turn-key self-driving shuttle or buy the basic structure and stuff their own technology into it. NEVS grouped the app customers will use to request a ride and a fleet management system into a software package it named PONS. Technical specifications haven't been released. All we know is that it's electric. NEVS confidently stated autonomous shuttles are closer to the mainstream than many think. "Getting from A to B with self-driving electric vehicles is not as far off as perhaps the car industry is implying. The era of one person per car and the era of owning a car are soon things of the past," opined Anna Haupt, the company's vice president of mobility solutions, in a statement. Engineers have started testing the first running Sango prototype at NEVS' headquarters in Trollhattan, Sweden. Looking ahead, the company plans to deploy a fleet of 10 autonomous shuttles in Stockholm, where they will be used by members of the general public. Autoblog learned from a company representative that testing will probably start in 2022, and that the firm is taking COVID-19-related concerns into account.