Saab's green partnership

Saab has signed a joint venture deal with US auto components specialist American Axle Manufacturing (AAM) for the engineering, development and marketing of a series of electric and hybrid powertrain systems.

The newly incorporated e-AAM Driveline Systems, headquartered in Saab's home town of Trollhättan in western Sweden, started operations on October 1. Its products will appear in Saab vehicles as early as 2012. Plans are afoot, too, to sell its products and the intellectual properties underpinning them across the global auto industry.

AAM describes itself as "a publicly traded company on the NYSE and a world leader in the manufacture, engineering, design and validation of driveline and drivetrain systems and related components and modules, chassis systems and metal-formed products for trucks, sport utility vehicles, passenger cars and crossover utility vehicles."  It has several large plants across the US and in Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Thailand and the UK.

The new company's most visible project up front is the engineering, packaging and marketing of an electric all-wheel drive system. The technology's primary charter is easy integration into existing platforms, keeping changes to vehicle architecture quick and easy and minimising costs and time to market.

Among the motherhood statements from the CEOs of both partners, perhaps the most telling came from Saab CEO Jan Åke Jonsson. "For Saab, the announcement of this partnership is a major step towards a successful future as an independent company," he said. After nearly 10 years as part of GM's portfolio of premium brand subsidiaries, the company was cut loose by the cash-strapped US giant last year. It hovered on the brink of death for some months until being acquired early in 2010 by Dutch sports car specialist Spyker, now helping the Swedish marque reprise itself as an independently-run business. During the past week, it has announced that it will re-enter the Australian market from the first quarter of next year.

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