National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), which scooped up the production facilities and designs of Saab after GM shut the company down in 2012, plans to produce electric cars at the old Trollhattan plant in Sweden, Bloomberg reports. Currently owned by a Chinese company, NEVS plans to produce and market vehicles aimed at the Chinese and European markets under its own brand name rather than Saab. In addition, NEVS is currently in talks with the governments of Shanghai, Chengdu and Hangzhou about creating a second production facility in China, with the move aimed to satisfy the demand of the Chinese market for so-called "new energy vehicles," which include hybrids and electric cars.

"We are embracing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the automobile industry with the adoption of new technologies moving forward way faster than we expected," company Chairman Kai Johan Jiang said in an interview with Bloomberg last week. "Car-sharing, electrification of automobiles and autonomous driving are the inevitable trend of future transport."

NEVS' rapid plans to restart production in Trollhattan have been linked to China's voracious demand for electric and hybrid vehicles, the production of which is expected to grow in the coming years due to the country's electric vehicle mandates. The automaker, one of 15 granted new-energy car production licenses by the Chinese goverment, already has orders for 300,000 vehicles from ride-sharing companies.

NEVS will kick off production with the 9-3EV, based on the old Saab 9-3 with which the company restarted production in Trollhattan following Saab's closure in 2012. The automaker will also produce the 9-3EV in a plant in the Chinese city of Tianjin, which will have an initial capacity of 50,000 cars per year, but expects to dial this up to 220,000 cars by 2019.

The 9-3 itself is proving to be a design that just won't die; in addition to NEVS' use of the old 9-3 sedan platform, Turkey is currently engaged in a national car project in collaboration with NEVS that will also make use of some Saab hardware. The name of Turkey's national car has not been announced yet, but it is expected to debut in the next two years, and will be produced in Turkey for the European market.

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