The Chinese owners of Saab, National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) has revealed it is to lay off 200 staff at its Saab production plant in Sweden.
NEVS is currently facing serious cash flow issues, the company has failed to pay suppliers for months, Swedish courts have been swamped by creditors demanding immediate payment by. NEVS countered this by obtaining a kind of corporate restraining order to allow for more time, effectively to delay payments while seeking fresh funding.
In a statement issued by NEVS, the company said “The ongoing discussions on collaboration and ownership structure, which have not yet resulted in a binding agreement, indicate that the decision for a start-up of production will take time,”.
The decision to lay off 200 workers was because there was no work for them to do, currently 550 employees remain, the reduction in the workforce is seen by NEVS as part of a restructuring plan. But it may reveal far serious problems.
NEVS has an external debt of $56 million and made a pretax loss of $5.9 million last year. NEVS strategy is to turn Saab into an electric vehicle company, the decade old 9-3 will be used to roll out this plan, with China being its key target market.