Saab's decision to start down-sizing goes into full effect in 2009 with the debut of the new 9-5. The 9-5 is expected to break out the Geneva Motor Show in March. Saab's largest car will be built on the new Epsilon II architecture that debuted last month with the new Opel Insignia. The smallest engine in the new 9-5 is expected to be a turbocharged 1.6L probably with direct injection. Other engines will include the 2.8L version of GM's twin cam V6 along with a pair of diesels. A 2.0L four cylinder along with GM's new 2.9L V6 diesel should be available. The use of direct injection will allow Saab to use higher boost levels matching the power of the larger engines with less displacement. Flex-fuel BioPower engines will certainly be part of the equation as well.

[Source: Channel 4]

The upcoming Saab 9-4X BioPower crossover has been caught out testing again. The 9-4X is expected to debut in production form later in 2009 as the current Trailblazer based 9-7X fades into history. From what we've seen so far the 9-4X will go into production virtually unchanged from the concept version that we saw in Detroit in January. The 9-4X and the new Provoq based Cadillac SRX will ride on a common architecture. The Saab will likely be powered by a choice of turbocharged engines. The concept used a direct injected and turbocharged 2.0L four cylinder optimized for operation on ethanol and generating 245 hp. The turbocharged 2.8L V6 from the Turbo-X sedan may also make an appearance. From these spy photos the interior looks to be carried over virtually intact from the concept.


[Source: AutoExpress]

When Saab debuted the 9-X BioHybrid concept at the recent Geneva Motor Show, aerodynamics was a big part of the equation. The compact 9-X has a smooth, rounded nose, a raked back wrap-around windshield and a downward sloping roof. To help reduce the drag at the back end of the short body, a spoiler that wraps around the roof extends backward up to four inches. A new video featuring some of the designers talking about the aero work that they did has just been posted on the GMnext web site. You can check out the video after the jump.


[Source: GMnext]

Saab pride! Even if you own a Ford or Chevy, you tend to have a sense of pride in the brand, or at least would flat-out refuse to set your left cheek in the driver's seat of your competitor's brand. Therefore, as a Saab owner, I get excited to hear any nifty tidbit of information about the brand, and here's some good news.

With the 9-3 and 9-5 BioPower models being sold in 2006 and 2007, Saab now has a 38 percent market share in the alternative fuel vehicle segment. Last year they sold 11,000 BioPower models, and have sold over 7,000 so far this year in Sweden alone.

Saab is playing a leadership role in promoting E85 and increasing its availability. They have low CO2 emissions across the range, and in fact, according to this video, Richard Hammond ("The Hamster" of Top Gear) says the catalytic converter in the 9-3 is so advanced, that the air coming out of the tailpipe is cleaner than that going in the intake in an urban environment. How about them apples?

[Source: Saab]

On Friday, the UK Secretary of State for the Environment, David Miliband, peeked in at the start of construction of a new £250 million bioethanol production plant to be run by Ensus in Teesside. The plant will open in 2009, and the Northern Echo reports that the plant will turn 1.2 million tons of wheat into 400 million liters of ethanol a year. Ensus says that's about a third of the UK's demand by 2010. Miliband rode in a Saab 9-5 BioPower to and from the event.

Nearby, the Biofuels Corporation of Teesside also makes biodiesel, sometimes for politicians. There's another picture after the break, because why not.

[Source: Saab UK, The Northern Echo]

Saab UK has released a teaser taste of its interview with Sir Richard Branson on biofuels, his personal actions to reduce his carbon footprint and his latest idea: creating the first carbon-neutral resort in the Caribbean, on his home of Necker Island. The interview will be published in full on Thursday at the Saab Biopower UK website.

In the interview, Branson says that, "I believe we need to make a virtue out of investing in clean technology and renewable energy and not be ashamed to want to make profits out of it. For too long, environmentally-friendly technology and issues about the environment have been seen as a corporate social responsibility issue and not an opportunity to create new wealth in the future. Governments alone cannot solve the problems we face unless the capitalist world invests in a sustainable future."

If you can't wait two days to hear what else Mr. Virgin has to say, here's a bunch-a-Branson from the AutoblogGreen archives:

• Richard Branson's quest to fund the extraction of greenhouse gases
• Richard Branson promotes alternative fuel movement by driving a Saab 9-5 BioPower
• Soon at a pump near you: Virgin Fuels
• Branson looks towards Virgin territory: biofuel

[Source: Saab]

As promised, here is the second video from GM Europe for the day, this time highlighting the Saab BioPower 100 concept vehicle. This car differs from standard Saab cars sold today by being powered by 100% ethanol. Again, like the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle we showed you earlier today, ethanol is another of the controversial suggested solutions to our dependence on petroleum as our main motive fuel source. As you probably already know, ethanol is an alcohol fuel that is derived from plant matter. In the U.S., that plant is usually corn, and in other parts of the world, such as Brazil, sugarcane is used. There are many plants which would be better than corn, but that is another posting for another day.

Kjell ac Bergström, CEO GM Powertrain Sweden, here suggests that a smaller engine would suffice for any particular vehicle if it were powered by ethanol as opposed to gasoline. This is because ethanol burns cooler and at a higher octane level, allowing a greater amount of power to be generated at any given engine size over gasoline. Smaller, more efficient engines are certainly a step in the right direction, and the fact that performance would not be diminished is icing on the cake.

As we mentioned last week, Rick Wagoner, chairman and CEO of GM spoke to the crowd at the Geneva Motor Show last week, and here is a video to prove it. He spoke quite a bit about alternative fuels and alternative propulsion. He went on to state that GM is committed to providing vehicles that can operate on many different sources of energy, and that GM supports the EU and their goals of reducing harmful emissions from automobiles. Wagoner highlighted that GM has recently been focusing more heavily on electric vehicles, both powered by electricity from hydrogen fuel cells, and "extended range electric vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Volt." Extended range being the on-board internal combustion engine powering a generator providing electricity to charge the batteries, I presume. Wagoner said that GM is also pushing forward with their alternative fuel programs such as E85, and working to improve the efficiency of their gas and diesel offerings. GM would like to displace the use of petroleum based fuels with alternatives such as bioethanol, which he mentioned was the fastest growing biofuel. Wagoner showed off the new Saab 9-3 BioPower vehicle that will be available for sale soon in Europe. The new 2.9 liter diesel V6 engine was also on display as well.

Of interest to us here, Wagoner mentioned the GM Sequel, and announced that a test fleet will be released into Europe of ten fuel cell vehicles. Also, regarding their E Flex platform, Wagoner spoke of using many different sources of electricity to power it, and said that there would be new concept vehicles using the platform at the Shanghai Motor Show and Frankfurt Motor Show. These vehicles would likely have nameplates from GM's European brands. That is certainly something to look forward to!

Thanks for the tip on the video, Linton!

[Source: Youtube]

With so much attention being paid to environmental awareness these days, Reuters has compiled a long list of Hollywood types and their contributions to the green movement. These effort can be as simple as driving a hybrid vehicle or staging a 23-day sit-in to preserve a garden. Or you can promote a technolgy, like Richard Branson (shown) does for Saab BioPower. One of the most interesting entries is Jamie Oliver, a chef who will use wind power to run his restaurant. Look for your favorite on the earthtimes website.

[Source: Jill Sergeant / Reuters via earthtimes.org]

We have shown you Saab's various BioPower vehicles before, and the Rinspeed eXasis, but here is a new take on an already existing vehicle. Borrowing cues from the eXasis concept, the Saab Biopower Rinspeed uses a similar bright yellow color and textures which mimic the eXasis. No real mechanical changes are made to the vehicle, but a tie-in already exists between the two vehicles, as both engines operate on E85.

The collaboration also marks Rinspeed's 30th anniversary, and the 60th anniversary of Saab's "turbocharged ideas", which will also be commemorated with anniversary edition Saabs for public consumption.

Various details of Rinspeed's take on the Saab, in addition to the color, are fiberglass inset headlights, dash and interior panels, and patterned seats. For more pictures, click here. Thanks for the tip, Swade!

For a complete transcript of the news release, continue reading after the break.

[Source: Trollhattan Saab]

Saab has been showing various ethanol powered BioPower concepts and building production versions for the past couple of years. The latest version, the BioPower 100, will be shown at the Geneva Motor Show next month. The new concept will be derived from the 9-5 SportCombi wagon, and will be optimized for E100 pure ethanol. This concept is intended to show the performance potential of running on ethanol which has relatively high octane ratings.

The 2.0L turbocharged four cylinder will have a peak output of 300hp and 295lb-ft of torque thanks to increased boost and compression ratios made possible by the use of E100. The big 9-5 wagon will accelerate from 0-100km/h (0-62mph) in a respectable 6.6 seconds and, even more impressively, does the fifth gear 50-75 mph run in 8.2 seconds. The concept will feature some exterior and interior design details from the Aero-X concept. The GM press release is after the jump.

[Source: General Motors]

The unveiling this week of the new Chevy Volt concept at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit has generated a huge amount of interest and traffic here at AutoblogGreen. With interest comes comments and around these parts, that usually means some controversy. The topic of green transportation technology seems to really bring out the conspiracy theorist in our readers, sometimes even with justification.

From perusing the comments on the series of Volt Posts, I've noticed several interesting threads, some of which I'll be following up on with GM to get proper answers for you. One particular idea I'd like to address here and now though is the "SAAB conspiracy". Several people seem to think that GM has deliberately suppressed a couple of recent SAAB concepts in the interest of promoting a domestic brand in the form of Chevrolet. The first is a the Saab 9-3 hybrid that was first shown at the Stockholm Motor show last March.

(Continued after the jump)

Over at The Auto Channel they've got a video on ethanol as fuel. There's not a lot new here but it does summarize some of what's going on with ethanol around the world. There is a brief history of how Brazil got into ethanol in a big way and also a mention of Sweden. Apparently 85 percent of Saab's 9-5 sales are of the bioPower flex-fuel version.

[Source: The Auto Channel]

The United Kingdom doesn't have the potential to grow crops for domestic production of a huge amount of biofuels, but that isn't stopping Great Britain's Chancellor from encouraging biofuel use. The Chancellor announced earlier this year that Britain has entered into a partnership agreement with three countries (Brazil, Mozambique and South Africa) to develop biofuels, but those biofuels are intended for use in southern Africa, not the UK.

Saab Great Britain, with its two E85-ready BioPower models, had asked the UK Government in the middle of November to give more support to domestic biofuel production, and said today it welcomes the chancellor's support of biofuels. The support comes in the form of a standing 20 pence per liter fuel duty rebate on biofuels and a possible increase in tax discounts for company cars that use high-blend biofuels.

Jonathan Nash, Managing Director of Saab Great Britain said that company car drivers make up about half of the light vehicle traffic on UK roads, so this discount could have a large impact.

Related:

• Saab 2.3t BioFuel engine on sale Monday, Saab asks UK for biofuel boost
• Richard Branson promotes alternative fuel movement by driving a Saab 9-5 BioPower

[Source: Saab Great Britain]