Saab – what is a Swedish car anyway?

The news that Chinese firms Pang Da and Youngman intend to acquire Saab Automobile, has been greeted by relief, resignation and objection, The Local's Geoff Mortimore explores the twisted fate of an iconic Swedish brand.

With the Chinese promising to invest more than €2 billion ($2.7 billion) into the ailing car maker, questions were immediately raised on the wider perspective of another household name possibly set to disappear from Sweden.

After all, at what point can a car made in China, owned 100 percent by Chinese companies, but sold under a Swedish brand name, still be considered "Swedish"?

Being foreign-owned is nothing new per se, but does the fact that the new owners of Saab and Volvo are both Chinese affect matters?

“You could say that it matters to General Motors that Volvo is owned by a Chinese firm, it could be less uncomfortable for them now,” says car industry expert Mikael Wickelgren at the University of Gothenburg, to The Local.

“But from a consumer perspective, there should not be much of an impact,” he adds.

Wickelgren argued that "Swedish values" can be maintained irrespective of the nationality of a brand's owners.

“It should not be any harder for a Chinese company to retain 'Swedish values' than for an American company or anywhere else for that matter. The key is what the purchaser of the company, in Saab’s case Youngman and Pang Da, perceive that they are actually buying and how much of a Swedish car they actually wish to keep and exploit.”

Continue reading: http://www.thelocal.se/37468/20111121/