Entrevista con Jan Ake Jonsson

[edusaab]

En aftonbladet ha salido una breve entrevista con el Manager de Saab y presidente ejecutivo. Jan Ake Jonsson.

Trollhättan is needed- if SAAB is supposed to survive." says Jan-Åke Jonsson to Aftonbladet. Robert Collin asks the new CEO of SAAB 10 questions about the future.
Name: Jan-Åke Jonsson
new SAAB CEO
Assignment: to show GM that Trollhättan is the place to use.

from a trademark point of view, we need to develop and manufacture SAAB in Trollhättan, he says. It's not enough to build some niche cars in Trollhättan. And it is doubtful whether the trademark of SAAB will survive if all manufacturing moves out of Sweden.

1. What is the biggest risk of moving SAAB manufacturing out of Sweden?
-That SAAB loses what is typically Swedish and Scandinavian. My job is to show Detroit how important it is to develop and build SAABs in Sweden.

2. How should a SAAB look in the future?
-SAAB has been inconsistent throughout the years. There has been turbo, hatchback,sedan and stationwagon mixed together. The only consistent thing has been the convertible, and it is our biggest success. For example, I don't think we should prioritize big load areas, 9-3 sportcombi is just right. They should be driver oriented cars, not load luggers.

3. The desicion of producing the next 9-3 in Rüsselsheim has already been made. But what about the next 9-5?
-That there will be a new 9-5 is clear, but where it will be build and on witch platform it will be based, is not clear. It could be based on Epsilon II (same as the next 9-3) or it could be based on a different platform.

4. How big of a chance does Trollhättan have?
-My ambition is to attract manufacturing possibilities to Trollhättan. But Trollhättan has to be really good for that to happen, so that GM says: "we must manufacture there." We have to show everyone that we're the best. Next year we will building five different cars in Trollhättan. Two models, the 9-3 SC and the BLS, are totally new. If we can manage that, then Trollhättan has a fair chance of making it.

5. Carl-Peter Forster (the CEO of GM-Europe) told me that Trollhättan could become a niche-plant and that the 9-3 convertbile might move there. And maybe a crossover too. What are your thoughts about that?
-To build 20000 convertibles a year is not sufficient. That we will get the new crossover isn't sufficient, either. No, we need to keep the 9-5.

6.While we're talking about SUVs,what do you think about the 9-7X?
-In the short term, it's totally fine. We nee to get more models to market fast, and 9-7X has cost almost nothing to develop. It's the same thing with the 9-6X. But clearly, a body-on-frame vehicle that uses a lot of gas is not the future. I drove the 9-7X from Göteborg to Stockholm, and it averaged at about 15 liters per kilometer. Clearly, that's not good. The 9-4X will be totally different, a crossover with a car-like feeling. It wil be sold all over Europe.

7. A few years ago, you had an almost production-ready AWD 9-3 in Trollhättan. Wouldn't it have been better to build that then to build the 9-2X and 9-7X?
-In 2002, SAAB lost a tremendous amount of money. Detroit demanded that we would stop waisting money and get the financials right. That was the right thing to do. We had to take a time out. And to develop the 9-3X would have been much more expensive than the other two. We had to get new models out soon.

8. But 9-2X is a real FLOP!!!!
-It is correct that the car sold poorly while it cost a lot more than the Impreza, but during the Employee discount program this summer, the car sold well.

9. But did you make any money??
-No, there were no profit margins, but we sold a lot of stock cars.

10. Will 9-2X get a successor?
-Probably not..

Realmente interesante lo del 9-2x........el maximo exponente del "Badge Engineering" y resulta ser un coche que no da beneficios, no hay margen y no se han creado las tan preciadas economias de escala......haber cuando GM reconoce sus errores de una punyetera vez y no va diciendo que todo es culpa de la "independencia de Saab".........para que luego diga que el exceso de inversion en el 9-3ss se podria haber gastado en hacer mas modelos, y si no hubieran gastado un punyetero duro en el 9-2x??

porque ni ha generado cash, ni sirve para entrar en un mercado/segmento nuevo, porque el producto es algo obsoleto, no genera cuota de mercado y no sirve para crear una imagen ni inercia de ventas siendo de los primeros en entrar en el segmento para el futuro, asi para que sirve??


saludos

[Tom93]

Super interesante, realmente va directo al grano y no se calla nada. Me quedo con que todo lo que va a salir de Trollhättan...si les dejan hacer las cosas...va a ser lo mejor de lo mejor.

[SAABpi]

Brillantes respuestas las del Sr. Jan Ake Jonsson. Ojalá llegue a cumplirse todo lo que propone, SAAB es realmente una marca sueca y de ahí su elegancia, sobriedaz y senzillez de su diseño.... solo nos faltaria que lo hicieran los de chevrolet, juas
Respecto al tema del 9-2X siempré pensé que era una GRAN CAGADA de coche para Europa, quien quiere un SAABbaru,..digoooo un SUBARU.. pues se lo compra, pero no se compra un engendro raroo-rarooo-rarooo-rarooo com marca SAAB. Puede que en el mercado americano, como son tan suyos a lo mejor les hubiera entrado mejor, pero tal como dice la entrevista, ni eso, se los quedaron empleados de SAAB a precios especiales, porque sino no se vendían.... esperemos que GM después de este bochornoso desastre llamado 9-2X y el que le sigue (el 9-7X) deje hacer a quien verdaderamente sabe de SAAB, ... he dicho

Saabludos,

[edusaab]

por cierto, leyendo la autopista en una columna de noticias cortas, sale que Eduardo Ramirez Carcamo, un Grancanario que esta como diseñador y ha sido el jefe de diseño del nuevo Vectra, el zafira entre otros, dicen que esta metido en algunos proyectos de futuro en la Saab........vamos que como el centro de diseño en Europa ahora esta en Russelheim, vete tu a saber como salen, que miedo me da....

saludos