- Next-generation Saab 9-3 will get BMW's 1.6-liter gasoline turbo, as well as future engines including diesels.
- A new Saab platform sourced from BMW is also rumored for the future.
Source: How Fast Does A New Car Lose Value
TROLLHATTAN, Sweden — Saab will buy BMW's 1.6-liter turbo gasoline engine, code-named N18, for its next-generation 9-3, due in the fall of 2012. BMW will supply around 200,000 examples of the engine "over the life cycle of the car," said Saab CEO Jan-Ake Jonsson, although he didn't give details about annual volumes.
Only the sale of the 200-horsepower version, complete with stop-start technology, has been announced, but other power outputs, both lower and higher, will be supplied by BMW. The engine will be tuned and calibrated to suit the 9-3, and Saab will gain all the updates BMW makes to the engine during the contract.
Jonsson said that Saab is also "exploring other opportunities...In a short time we have formed an excellent relationship with BMW." Further deals are believed to include diesel engines — essential to Europe — and a more significant development that could see a BMW platform, probably from Mini, being used to underpin the small 9-2 hatchback that Saab Chairman Victor Muller has previously said that he wants the automaker to build. But, other than to say that the 9-2 "is not funded in the business plan," Muller would not be drawn any further on this project.
The deal with Saab is the biggest BMW has struck so far as part of its Strategy Number One, announced in 2007, in which it decided to sell its powertrains to other manufacturers. "This is very significant," said BMW Sales and Marketing Director Ian Robertson, "and a major step towards the direction we took in 2007." BMW will supply the engines from its Hams Hall plant in England. It already supplies British sports car maker Morgan and will sell engines to the U.S. company Carbon Motors, which will make pursuit vehicles for police use.
This is not the first time Saab has sourced an engine from the U.K. The company used the Triumph slant-four power unit for the 1968 Saab 99, which it subsequently produced and developed itself.
Inside Line says: This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. — Richard Bremner, Correspondent
Add A Comment »
wardlafrance44 says:
12:02 AM, 11/11/2010
The old saab with scania engine are the best, the GM motor equipped on saab is like a opel GM engine, too delicate, the mechanical part like connecting-rod, cam-shaft , cranck-shaft,...are made with poor material (too many bubbles in the metal).
My father had a saab 900 turbo with 650'000 km and with original turbo.
carprices says:
12:08 PM, 10/06/2010
An engine isn't the entire car. Saab will still be riding on it's own or handed down GM platforms aside from the Mini. Also, the 3 series in the US is offered only with BMW's inline 6, besides that, the 3 series is RWD whereas the Saab most likely will be FWD.
http://www.carsfind.net
exinobel102 says:
09:27 AM, 10/04/2010
Not that Saab is sourcng a bad engine form a bad supplier, quite the opposite, I think it's kind've just weird how the auto manufacturer that pioneered the turbo charged engine now needs to outsource engine technology to other manufacturers. Thanks GM. Poor Saab and Volvo, once Sweden's pide at auto engineering, now only shells of their forms selves.
angry_mushroom says:
03:46 PM, 09/29/2010
hmmm... a Saab 9-5M. I like the sound of that.
tfd123 says:
12:14 PM, 09/29/2010
compressor - they have the know-how, certainly more than BMW when it comes to turbos. They just don't have the cash. It's much cheaper to buy engines from someone else than to design a new one from the ground up. A BMW 4 cyliner turbo in a Saab just seems wrong though.
lions208487 says:
12:13 PM, 09/29/2010
Great plan, now Saab can have a niche vehicle without the lag of their current turbo models, because the turbo lag that makes a "Saab a Saab" isn't what consumers want.
akula1 says:
09:43 AM, 09/29/2010
Let me know when SAAB gets the I-6 w/ AWD then we'll talk.
compressor says:
09:00 AM, 09/29/2010
This makes me happy, although Saab should have the know-how for their own turbo development.
Now Saab just needs to produce something in RWD, or rear biased AWD. Maybe something to fill in the the driver's car market that BMW seems to be leaving.
blueguydotcom says:
08:16 AM, 09/29/2010
200 HP 1.6 liter turbo - so is this different from the Mini JCW's engine?