New Owners Expect Saab To Be Profitable in 2011

Saab just recently was pulled from disappearance from the automotive scene by none other than Dutch supercar manufacturer Spyker.

Interesting seeing another small sports car company purchasing the (comparatively) volume brand after the Koenigsegg deal fell through.

The 2011 model lineup and pricing was just introduced, with the 9-5 surprising many with its price tag coming in near the $50k hurdle at $49,990.

A four-cylinder turbo model is slated to be coming with a pricetag below the 40k mark. With this pricing, one thing was made clear to us at the time - Saab couldn't be expecting a high amount of volume.

With manufacturers that are Saab's size, often a conundrum is created of not enough profit (due to economies of scale) to be made on volume vehicles and not enough sales at high prices.

Apparently, Saab has found an equation that works for them though.The CEO of Saab Jan Ake Jonsson, spoke  with Drive about when the brand company will reach the break even point and turn a profit.

It could be sooner than anyone thinks, with profitability being reached as soon as the second half of 2011. All Jonsson says Saab  to do that is 80,000 to 85,000 in annual sales to. This is extremely encouraging considering that in 2008, 98,000 cars were sold - and that is without a new 9-5.

For a while, the brand hovered at around 125,000 units, and at that level Jonsson says Saab will be "quite profitable."

Saab is far from out of the woods yet, but these figures are very encouraging. Hopefully, Saab can achieve sales levels that will enable them to continue on as an independent company for the foreseeable future.