General Motors’ loss-making Saab unit is planning to launch three new models in Europe in an effort to boost volumes and break even, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said on Saturday.
Saab was expanding its portfolio of models to five ranges from two, the German financial newspaper said.
“We’re taking the bull by the horns,” it quoted an unnamed General Motors executive as saying.
The big 9-7 sports-utility vehicle, already available in the United States, is expected to be sold in Europe, the FAZ said. Alongside it should be a more compact sports utility vehicle, the 9-4.
Saab is also developing a compact car the size of a VW Golf or Opel Astra. This model, including possible variants, is meant to arrive by 2010 at the latest, the FAZ report said.
Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri reported on Friday that Saab made a loss of 1.9 billion Swedish crowns in the first half of the year, up from a loss of 763 million in the same period of 2004.
It also quoted Saab’s financial report, which it said had been sent in to the Swedish Companies Registration Office, that its sales had fallen by 13 percent to 12 billion crowns.
Saab chairman Carl-Peter Forster recently told Reuters that the car company could break even at volumes well below 200,000 units. Last year it made 120,000 cars in Europe and North America.
