#SwedishCar

It caused quite a stir back at the Geneva Auto Show in March, now Volvo is in the process of causing another one, having announced that the production version of its V60 Plug-in Hybrid wagon is heading to dealers next year as a 2013 model, albeit in the fourth quarter.

An article in Automotive News proposed that the Saab 9-4X crossover may be the world’s rarest new vehicle on sale. Although Saab had planned to sell between 15,000 and 20,000 examples globally this year (with half of sales conducted in the United States), a mere 194 have been sold through October in the United States.

Volvo said it is working on two variants, a gas-electric plug-in hybrid for North America, and a diesel-electric plug-in hybrid for the rest of the world. Volvo’s system, which uses lithium-ion batteries to power the electric motors, has a range of 31-miles on battery power alone, after which the combustion engine will kick in to take you home.

U.S. private equity firm North Street Capital, has purchased Spyker, after a deal to sell the Dutch outfit to Russian investors fell through. The Financial Times reported the news after viewing a preliminary draft of the announcement.

The Saab soap-opera continues, but this week the news is good. Saab just won a court appeal to protect it from creditors while it awaits funding from its Chinese investors.

However, now it hopes to add another daily appliance to its resume, by making an electric car. To do so, it has partnered with Volvo to make a fully-electric car based on their C30 platform.

The Saab 9-6X concept was unveiled six years after being axed. The first pictures of the concept have hit the web and was unveiled at the company’s museum in Trollhättan.

But while its CEO Victor Muller is looking for the money train to keep the company on track, Saab itself is preparing to launch the 9-5 Sport Combi in the US-market.

Saab is hitting the road in an effort to promote its new financial backers, but the road show will have to wait for approval from several authorities who must approve Saab’s transactions with China’s Hawtai Motor Group and Russian financier Vladimir Antonov.

Volvo CEO Stefan Jacoby has announced that their plans for a flagship sedan to compete with the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7-Series have been put on hold, and may be dead altogether.

Saab’s attempt at selling off assets to a Russian financial magnate Vladimir Antonov has stalled after the European Investment Bank told the Swedish auto maker to essentially find a new partner within a set time frame.

Volvo is not a company that is typically associated with bold designs, but in recent years, they have been showing a wilder, more creative side.

Saab has halted production yet again amid another dispute with suppliers. Saab representatives declined to say how long the production stoppage would last, but said that they were in discussions with their suppliers to resolve the matter. Saab’s parent company Spyker said that last week’s production stoppage was related to unpaid bills.

Another one makes the cut. Add the 2012 Volvo S60 to the list of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Top Safety Pick award winners. That means it earned good performance ratings for front, side, rollover, and rear crash protection. It also comes with standard electronic stability control (ESC), which is also needed to win this award.

Volvo has a history of getting into bed with Italian coachbuilders for some of its more exclusive models, first Bertone and then Pininfarina.