Koenigsegg-Saab Quant Waterville ME

Car of the Auto Industry of the Future: Koenigsegg-Saab Quant By Mike Spinelli

This week, a boutique builder of million-dollar supercars snapped up an established automaker with nearly 5,000 times its yearly output of vehicles. What's the deal? Is it a matter of super-hubris or another sign of a coming paradigm shift in the auto industry?
 

Sweden's Koenigsegg is set to assume control of GM's struggling Saab division, likely with help from investors and $600 million in financing backed by the Swedish government. But the question remains. Why would a company like Koenigsegg that sells 20 cars a year to the super rich want a company like Saab, which hasn't made a profit since 2001? On one hand, K-egg co-owner Baard Eker says his company has a plan to save Saab from the dustbin of automotive history. We don't yet know what that plan is, or if it has any chance at working.

On the other, a report in Swedish newspaper Realtid suggests buying a Saab's production facilities could be a way to get Koenigsegg's Quant electric vehicle prototype to market. The Quant is a co-project with Sweden's NLV Solar AG, whose photovoltaics and accumulator technology inhabit the concept car. It debuted earlier this year at the Geneva motor show as a test platform for a unique propulsion system that combines NLV's solar tech with an accumulator storage battery the company says can charge up in 20 minutes for a 311-mile range. Read the entire article at popsci.com! 

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