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China's Evergrande says it will start making electric vehicles in June

BEIJING — Chinese property firm Evergrande Group will start producing its first electric vehicles in June as part of a goal to become the world's largest new energy vehicle (NEV) company within the next three to five years, according to its chairman. Hui Ka Yan made the comments at a conference in the eastern city of Tianjin over the weekend, according to a statement published on the company's website on Tuesday. "The new energy automobile industry has a huge market prospect. Evergrande has completed the entire industrial chain layout in the field of new energy vehicles," Hui said. He also said that Evergrande plans to start selling its first electric vehicle model globally "soon," which will use electric car production technology from Swedish car makers Saab and Koenigsegg, and drive systems from Netherlands' e-Traction, according to the statement. Evergrande, China's second-largest property developer by sales, has been aggressively expanding into the automotive space in search of new areas of growth as the Chinese property market slows. Its subsidiary, Evergrande Health, invested in vehicle manufacturer National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS), which picked up the assets of Saab, and Chinese auto battery maker Shanghai CENAT New Energy Co this year. It is also the majority investor in Swedish super car brand Koenigsegg. Not all of Evergrande's investments have gone smoothly, however. Last year, Evergrande Health bought 45 percent of Chinese electric vehicle firm Faraday Future as part of a $2 billion plan but the deal eventually turned sour. The companies have since ended their legal fight. Sales of NEV vehicles have remained a bright spot in China's car market, jumping 61.7 percent in 2018 to 1.3 million vehicles even as the overall car market contracted for the first time since the 1990s. China's biggest auto industry association predicts NEV sales to hit 1.6 million this year. Auto News Green Plants/Manufacturing Koenigsegg Saab NEVS

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.

Vampire Weekend singer responds to burning Saab controversy [w/video]

Last week, we tipped you off about Vampire Weekend and their new music video for the song Diane Young, a short film that consists entirely of setting fire to two perfectly nice-looking Saab 900 automobiles. The indie rock band's video - viewable by scrolling down - predictably triggered the internet ire of classic car enthusiasts - Saabophiles in particular - and word of the unrest eventually got back to the band itself.
According to music site Spinner (nb: owned by Autoblog parent AOL), the group was "stunned" at the backlash - enough that lead singer Ezra Koenig felt compelled to respond himself. According to Koenig, the band was under the impression that their record company was "looking to purchase the cheapest, oldest cars possible; they weren't trying to buy a beautiful perfect condition car." By way of apology, Koenig even goes so far as to note that bandmate Rostam Batmanglij is a keen fan of Saab.
Other reports have claimed that the cars may have been purchased under false pretenses, sold by owners who "wanted to see them go to a nice new home," but Koenig takes issue with that characterization, countering that he understood that the cars had substantial electrical problems.