At its plant in southwestern Sweden, Saab restarted production on March 22. It has been a a month since General Motors sold the brand to Dutch sportscar maker Spyker.
"We're producing 100 cars a day but we intend to have a higher objective, but that is a start goal," Peter Backstroem said from Saab's plant in Trollheattan, which employs about 3,400 people.
Production consists mostly of the Saab 9-3 model, and of a few cars of the 9-5 model, a new higher-range model the carmaker is currently launching, Backstroem said.
Spyker said it hoped to produce 50,000 to 60,000 cars this year, but production of 100 vehicles per day would yield only 36,500 cars.
The new owner hopes Saab will eventually return to its former production volume of between 100,000 and 125,000 vehicues per year and be profitable by 2012. During the 20 years it was owned by GM, Saab never turned a profit.
Last year, the Trollheattan plant rolled out 38,756 vehicles, against around 93,000 in 2008, according to company figures.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
