Koenigsegg Group and General Motors have reached the final table deal with regard to the fate of the Saab. After twenty years of American ownership, Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg will have 100% control over the Saab brand.
The deal will be concluded after a few months and the Saab brand will know what lies ahead. Koenigsegg and GM will be handling necessary legal re-organization and discuss some closing conditions.
General Motors is expected to give transitional assistance for the operation of Saab. The Swedish government has also promised to inject some funding to the turnover.
For a certain time frame, Koenigsegg and GM will be sharing their services and technology guided by set agreements. The Swedish car maker plans to put into effect some solutions to revive Saab but it is a big job to prove for a company with only 50 employees that sell a number of $1 million cars annually.
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February of 2009 has been a major headache for the top six car manufacturers in US. Sales sank for more than 37 percent, and it is the worst ever, since December of 1981.
To note, General Motors had the biggest decline among the giant car companies with 53.1 percent, Ford Motor with 49.5 percent decline and Chrysler who slide down 44.0 percent. Toyota sales also sank with 39.8 percent, while Honda and Nissan with 37 percent.
A sad but true fact, US monthly sales still failed to rise, since October 2007, along with the 15-month global economic recession. For three consecutive months, the year-over-year decline was 0.7 percent. As for the month of February, consumer’ confidence decreased due to the impact of the economic recession.
Despite car manufacturers’ efforts to boost their car sales by incentive spending by 15.9 percent, still, the industry suffers decline in sales. Last February, Ford was traumatized with the collapse of its bestseller vehicle, the F-series pick-up, with only 23,614 trucks purchased, a dramatic decrease of 55.1 percent from a year earlier.
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