Dutch supercar company Spyker NV will receive millions of euros in investment from a Chinese car manufacturer to develop three separate car markets including a luxury SUV first launched as a concept in 2006.
Zhejiang Youngman Passenger Car Group Co. has bought a stake in Spyker NV, the Dutch carmaker bought Swedish company Saab from General Motors in 2010 before Saab went bankrupt, in a deal that will invest heavily in the company in three separate projects.
Eu10 million will be used to support the production of the company’s main product, the C8 Aero Spyder. Youngman will pay Eu6.7 million for a 29% stake in Spyker, and it will loan the carmaker another Eu3.3 million.
Eu25 million will be provided in a joint venture in a new car, a luxury SUV (sports utility vehicle) that Spyker launched as a concept at the Geneva Motor Show in 2006 but was never developed. Spyker’s D8 is pitched at the top end of the SUV segment. “We’ve already done a great deal of work on the chassis and design, this capital injection will take it to market,” says company spokesman Sander van Djik.
The third part is a second joint venture with Youngman to develop part of the Saab Phoenix platform into a range of new cars. The Phoenix is a supercar that never got to market under Saab. This part of the deal could be worth “hundreds of millions of euros”, say Mr van Djik.
Last year Spyker planned to manufacture some of its cars in Coventry but the company it arranged to product the car went out of business. Coventry-based Envisage manufactures most of the body panels for the C8 Spyder and the British company stands to benefit greatly from any ramp-up in production of the C8, and the new SUV, following Youngman’s investment.
Spyker had previously claimed that General Motors, Saab’s previous owner, unfairly blocked earlier deals with Youngman, fearing that GM technology would be secreted to the Chinese company.
