12 years since Saab’s bankruptcy: Secret NEVS electric cars revealed

Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare has been given exclusive access to all-electric cars developed in secret by NEVS, which took over after the Saab Automobile bankruptcy.

For the Swedish version of this article, click here.

Swedish car company NEVS, which took over the Trollhättan facility after the bankruptcy of Saab Automobile, needed only ten months to design and develop the all-electric car Emily GT.

Car magazine Vi Bilägare has published a review of NEVS Emily GT which offers many interesting technical innovations – for instance wheel-mounted electric motors and an inductive charging pad which would have been class-leading.

Vi Bilägare can also reveal some of the engineering projects that engineers at NEVS were working on before the company laid off almost all employees.

Firstly, NEVS developed an electric version of the Saab 9-3. At first glance, the car looks almost identical to the regular Saab 9-3. But at closer inspection, some design details have been changed. For example, the bonnet was raised to comply with crash regulations for pedestrians.

The interior offers a new infotainment system with a bigger touchscreen than in the regular Saab 9-3, and also a digital instrument cluster.

Underneath, the changes are much bigger. This updated version of the Saab 9-3 has an all-electric drivetrain and 70 percent of the components are new. The car is based on a new platform compared to the old 9-3.

Information on power, range, and battery sizes are unfortunately not available.

Even more interesting is a design concept developed in 2017. This car is also all-electric, and is based on the same platform as the updated Saab 9-3 above. But the body has an all-new design language and the wheelbase is extended to offer more interior space.

The front-end offers a horizontal LED bar, which is raised in the middle. This was designed to be a design feature on new NEVS cars. Another interesting design detail is the rear spoiler which seems to ”melt” together with the roof.

As with the facelifted 9-3, details on battery sizes, range, and power are not available, and no pictures of the interior exists.

As you can see below, NEVS also developed scale models and computer illustrations on many other possible cars. Sadly, none of them was ever put into production.

NEVS developed many scale models for upcoming vehicles. This is a compact SUV with a design language that would have made it a rival for the Volvo XC40.

NEVS also had plans for all-electric saloon models.

This is an extremely long design concept for a luxury EV. The design brings to mind the Faraday Future, but the NEVS version is over three feet longer.

This is a design concept for a hatchback crossover. The C-pillar strongly resembles older Saab models.

NEVS developed a unique design language to make the models stand out.

The ”floating roof” is a popular design trick to make the car feel lower and sleeker.

A luxury EV with a characteristic front-end.

NEVS experimented with many different design details.

The Emily GT four-door coupé was also shown with different body styles.

An Emily GT Convertible would have been a spiritual successor to the Saab 900 Turbo.

NEVS was also toying around with the idea of a hatchback and a shooting brake.

The front-end looks similar, but the design differs from the A-pillar and backwards.

To test out the technical solutions for the Emily GT, NEVS developed a special test mule version of the Saab 9-3 with a extremely long track and wheelbase. It was internally known as ”The Beast”.