Saab owner to assemble cars sitting idle

Stockholm - The owners who bought the bankrupt carmaker Saab said on Thursday they plan to finish assembling 100 cars that have sat idle on the production line of a Swedish plant since May.

The Chinese-backed consortium National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) also said that they will apply for an extension of their current bankruptcy protections, which ends March 2.

NEVS said the extension will give them more time for talks with an unnamed Asian carmaker that is interested in becoming the new majority owner.

"Even if we complete the talks during this period, we have to get out of the reorganisation. That means settling with all suppliers," NEVS chief executive Mattias Bergman told Swedish Radio news.

"We think this will take time and therefore we will ask for more time," he said.

About 100 cars were in production at the Trollhattan plant when assembly lines fell silent in May.

Bergman said NEVS has been able to pay salaries and taxes for February with funding from the current owners.

Hong Kong-based National Modern Energy Holdings is majority owner of NEVS, with a 78% stake. Qingbo Investment owns the rest.

Saab belonged to US car giant General Motors until the beginning of 2010 and was later taken over by Dutch boutique sports carmaker Spyker.

Saab filed for bankruptcy in December 2011, although the production lines had fallen silent months earlier. Saab was sold to NEVS in June 202.