Swedish car brand Saab went bankrupt back in 2011, yet many enthusiasts still lament the passing of the legendary car company. The final production cars were the 9-3 Aero and the 9-5, and while Chinese-backed NEVS tried to revive the brand, ultimately it came to nothing, and Saab was officially gone.
However, there were still reminders of the brand at the historic Trollhättan plant, with a few vehicles still being housed in the factory, and they have been there for some time. The cars are almost defiantly stubborn in their desire to stay at the factory, as if to say that Saab may one day make a comeback.
These cars, though, have recently been sold at auction, as the cars, mostly pre-production prototypes, were auctioned off online in a sale hosted by Klaravik, which ended on May 30th. This collection of cars was the last one still at the factory.
With these cars sold, the final remnants of Saab at its last home are gone. The factory will be empty, and any remaining hope of ever seeing the company return from the dead will be extinguished forever. For many, this is the real end of the legendary Saab.
How NEVS Tried to Rescue Saab After Its Collapse
Three separate companies actually tried to revive Saab and keep the company going. The last of these came from Chinese-backed start-up company National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS). It was founded after the bankruptcy of 2011, specifically to acquire the remaining assets, which it managed to do in 2021. This even included the Trollhättan factory, the Phoenix platform, and a load of engineering resources.
NEVS did try very hard to keep Saab going, with production in both Sweden and China. Saab 9-3 production was even restarted in Trollhättan in 2013, and it looked like the company had somehow risen from the dead. But by the following year, NEVS ran out of money, and it had to abandon production, and it even lost the right to use the Saab name and griffin logo. These are still controlled by Saab AB, the aerospace company.
Despite this, updated versions of the Saab 9-3 were built in China, but these wore the NEVS badge. That ended in 2023, with NEVS entering ‘hibernation’ mode. Fast forward to 2026, and the final Saab cars at the Trollhättan factory would emerge into the sunlight to head off to auction. Some lucky buyers got to take home very special parts of the company’s history.
These Are the Saab Cars That Are Headed to Auction
Seven vehicles had been auctioned off in total, although only three were true Saabs. The rest were badged NEVS. These three genuine cars were pre-production Saab 9-3 sedans, built when NEVS tried to revive production in 2013. These cars were used for final testing, certification, and for various registration procedures.
This trio of cars has between 11,000 and 36,000 miles on the clock, so they had reasonable mileage during their time at the factory. The big caveat is that, as they are pre-production cars, getting them road-registered could be impossible, or at least very difficult. Of the other vehicles, one is an in-wheel-motor prototype that NEVS acquired in 2019 from British company Protean Electric. One of the cars is an NEVS-branded electric 9-3, a car that actually entered limited production in China. The rest were development vehicles for projects that didn’t get close to production.
A Chapter Will Close With the Sale of These Vehicles
On the Klaravik website, it stated that all three cars were being sold with no reserve. So, depending on the demand for them, someone went home with a really good bargain. At the time of writing, a Saab 9-3 Aero at the auction with 1,843 miles on the clock had bits of up to 173,000 SEK, which is roughly $18,750. Once these are all sold, a huge automotive chapter will close forever, and perhaps finally, the ghosts of Saab can be laid to rest.