Rendered Speculation: What if Saab made a Volt?
Every automaker has specific styling cues that it uses to make its designs instantly recognizable. It would seem this is especially true of a car's front fascia, and it's often fun to graft the grille and headlights from one automaker onto a vehicle design from another. For instance, take a look at the Chevy Volt and Opel Ampera, two vehicles that share similar bodywork with the notable exception of the front clip.
We already know that General Motors would like to expand its Voltec powertrain into other brands in its portfolio, notably Cadillac. Moving the Voltec upmarket a few notches would allow GM to recuperate the development costs of the high-tech powertrain package much faster. Could that also include Saab? A Photoshop expert named Theophilus Chin has created a few renderings of what a Saab Volt might look like, and we think it's pretty interesting.
Although a Voltec-powered Saab would also help move the technology into a higher price bracket, it seems unlikely that the automaker would extend its flagship powertrain technology to a brand that it's actively shopping, but it's fun to speculate on these things anyway.
[Source: Theophilus Chin via Carscoop]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
required 7:47PM (5/18/2009)
If it looks like an old Saab like the Saab 93/96/99 then I'm all for it. Heck even if it looked like their 900 I'd like it better then the Volt. But if they just stuck a Saab badge/bumper/grill on the Volt, then the Volt would look worse than it does.
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Jimbo 9:14PM (5/18/2009)
The Saab front end is a perfect match for the Volt. Much better looking than the regular Volt.
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Chris M 10:42PM (5/18/2009)
IIRC, Saab engineers designed their own plug-in hybrid, only to have the head honchos at GM squelch it, to avoid overshadowing their Chevy Volt announcements. If sold, Saab might resurrect their own effort and go into competition with GM.
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Stew 10:55PM (5/18/2009)
You photoshop guys are amazing, that looks pretty good!
Stew
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Steve R. 2:10PM (5/19/2009)
Cool... they can call it the "9-Volt" ;-)
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