Posted on Wednesday 7 May 2008
General Motors, owner of Opel and Saab among others, is being tight lipped about its production for the next-gen Saab 9-3, but now German newspaper the Handelsblatt is claiming that the next 9-3 will be produced in Sweden rather than Germany as originally planned.
The General has been talking as far back as 2005 that the production contract for the next Saab 9-3 would land at the Opel factory in Russelsheim, but this could all be changed in lieu of the Saab 9-3’s downgrade to a smaller platform. The next-gen 9-3 will no longer be on the same platform as it is now, but rather it will be based on a smaller platform in order to reduce fleet emissions averages and to avoid providing a product that is too similar to the next 9-5.
This means that it may be built on GM’s Delta platform, leading to speculation that production may be moved from Russelsheim, Germany to Trollhatten in Sweden, Saab’s hometown and one of GM’s European manufacturing plants.
Because of all the shuffling, the new 9-3’s expected release date of 2009-10 has been pushed back to 2011-12, but the smaller sized 9-3 will be able to go head to head with a wider range of cars without impeding on the 9-5’s territory.
It will make it easier for the General to sell off or kill Saab if the brand is not too entangled with other GM lines.