Saab 9000 Turbo 1990 Model Year on 2040-cars

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Nicolas Cage flogs Saab-based Senova from Beijing Auto [w/video]

BAIC has officially pulled the covers off of its new Senova D Series sedan for China. The four-door is based on the old Saab 9-5 and boasts a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine. Local buyers can get their hands on the machine for around $22,745 at current conversion rates. Other engine options include a turbocharged 1.8-liter four cylinder as well as turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder, and a wide range of safety equipment comes standard on every trim except the very base model. Those goodies include a tire pressure monitoring system, active head restraints, blind spot detection, driver fatigue detection and parking sensors.
The Senova nameplate serves every model based on former Saab architectures, including the Epsilon, GM2900 and GM2400 platforms as well as engine and transmission tech. In order to promote its new products, BAIC has hired Hollywood staple Nicolas Cage to serve as the company's brand ambassador. Cage stars in the Senova-heavy Town of Car Legends action-packed video short (directed by Olivier Megaton of Transporter 3 and Taken 2 fame) which you can view by scrolling below.

Boeing, Saab introduce entry for T-X trainer program

This post is appearing on Autoblog Military, Autoblog's sub-site dedicated to the vehicles, aircraft, and ships of the world's armed forces. Boeing and Saab revealed their entry for the US military's T-X trainer replacement program. The new jet, simply called T-X, is like the lovechild of a F/A-18 Hornet and an F-16 Falcon, and as Boeing tells it, will provide "performance, affordability, and maintainability advantages" over the competition. "Our T-X is real, ready and the right choice for training pilots for generations to come," Leanne Caret, Boeing Defense, Space, and Security's President and CEO said in an official statement. And Caret isn't not kidding about the Boeing T-X being both real and ready – Boeing is so confident that it built two examples before the official unveiling on Tuesday. The first jet, which Defense News reports will fly by the end of the year, debuted to media with the kind of pomp usually reserved for automotive debuts. Boeing/Saab will use the second jet – also featured on Tuesday – for structural proof testing. The needs of a training aircraft are quite different than those of a traditional fighter. The T-X features stadium-style seating, so the instructor riding in back has nearly as good a view as the student in front. Student evaluations should be easy, too, as the open software transmits data effortlessly between ground training systems and the jet itself. Functionally, Boeing claims the twin-tail layout provides more agility than a single-tail design – remember, the military's newest jets, the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II both use twin-tail layouts – while the Air Force can mount two weapon hard points on the jet's wings. According to Defense News, four manufacturers – Boeing/Saab, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin/KAI, and Raytheon/Leonardo/CAE – are vying for the contract to build 350 new trainers to replace the Air Force's fleet of aging T-38 Talons. Featured Gallery Boeing/Saab T-X Entry News Source: Boeing, Defense NewsImage Credit: Boeing Saab Military

Saab begins 9-3 EV pilot production

To say that Saab has had a tough time lately would be like saying that it's been a little colder than usual this winter. After General Motors finally gave up and sold it to Spyker in 2010, Saab declared bankruptcy the following year. GM successfully blocked Spyker from selling Saab to Chinese automaker Youngman the following year, but ultimately it ended up in the hands of another Chinese consortium called NEVS. Standing as it does for National Electric Vehicle Sweden, the new owners promised not only to restart production of the long-suffering 9-3, but also to turn it into an electric vehicle. And that's just what it's doing.
The latest news coming out of Sweden indicates that NEVS/Saab has started building the first examples of the 9-3 EV. These first 200 or so examples are set to be shipped off to Qingdao - the Chinese city that is home to the Tsingtao brewery, hosted the sailing components of the 2008 summer games on Beijing, was supposed to host an IndyCar race in 2012 before it was canceled, and also itself just happens to own 22 percent of NEVS.
These first EVs have their batteries mounted down low in the chassis for a low center of gravity and have a range of about 20 miles on a full charge. That's absolutely paltry compared to the other EVs on the market: a Nissan Leaf will travel more than four times that distance, and a Tesla Model S will go ten times farther on a charge.