When NEVS opened the gates in Trollhättan and put the remaining Saab and NEVS test cars up for auction, the story was never going to follow the pattern of a normal used-car sale. These were not retail cars waiting for a fresh service stamp, a new owner and a quiet weekend drive home. They were pre-series vehicles, factory test cars, development mules and engineering artifacts from the long tail of Saab’s life after 2011.
The auction had no reserve prices. Every lot started at zero. The final public viewing took place at the former Saab site in Trollhättan on May 30, 2026, before Klaravik closed the bidding on seven 9-3-based cars that had remained in NEVS custody.
The deeper context makes the results harder to read in isolation. NEVS CEO Nina Selander has confirmed that the company is fighting to survive, with bankruptcy a real possibility if no buyer or solution emerges for the remaining projects. These cars were not released simply because the moment felt symbolic. They left because the company that kept them is approaching its own deadline. That background belongs in any honest reading of the final prices.
Now the numbers are final. Together, the seven Saab/NEVS cars reached 1,031,000 SEK, or roughly $111,600 using an approximate May 30 conversion of 9.24 SEK per US dollar. The highest price did not go to a gasoline Saab 9-3 Aero. It went to the China-built NEVS 9-3 electric car, which sold for 252,000 SEK, about $27,300.
That result tells the story clearly. The market did not bid blindly on nostalgia. It separated usable cars from incomplete prototypes, running vehicles from non-running development hardware, and possible registration candidates from museum-only engineering objects.
Table of Contents
- 1 Final auction results: every Saab and NEVS 9-3 lot
- 2 Final auction results: every Saab and NEVS 9-3 lot
- 3 The NEVS 9-3 EV took the top price
- 4 The 18,430-km Saab 9-3 was the strongest gasoline result
- 5 The 38,781-km Saab 9-3 Aero attracted the most bids
- 6 The 58,646-km Saab 9-3 pre-series car landed at 142,000 SEK
- 7 The in-wheel motor NEVS 9-3 was the engineering prize
- 8 The autonomous-driving NEVS 9-3 sold for 118,000 SEK
- 9 The range-extender prototype was the bargain, but for a clear reason
- 10 Which cars could realistically be registered?
- 11 Marcus and Manuela captured the factory-floor atmosphere
- 12 What the prices tell us
- 13 Trollhättan’s afterlife now moves into private hands
- 14 The Trollhättan auction now has its final numbers
Final auction results: every Saab and NEVS 9-3 lot
The table below gives the cleanest view of the auction. The highest price went to the complete and running NEVS 9-3 EV, while the three gasoline Saab 9-3 pre-series cars formed the strongest collector group. The non-running prototypes stayed lower, even when their engineering story was more unusual.
Final auction results: every Saab and NEVS 9-3 lot
The table below gives the cleanest view of the auction. The highest price went to the complete and running NEVS 9-3 EV, while the three gasoline Saab 9-3 pre-series cars formed the strongest collector group. The non-running prototypes stayed lower, even when their engineering story was more unusual.
| Vehicle | Type | Winning bid | Approx. USD | Bids |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NEVS 9-3 electric car, 38,000 km | China-built pre-series EV | 252,000 SEK | $27,300 | 113 |
| Saab 9-3 Aero pre-series, 18,430 km | 2014 gasoline manual | 177,000 SEK | $19,200 | 90 |
| Saab 9-3 Aero pre-series, 38,781 km | 2014 gasoline manual | 159,000 SEK | $17,200 | 155 |
| Saab 9-3 pre-series, 58,646 km | 2014 gasoline manual | 142,000 SEK | $15,400 | 134 |
| NEVS 9-3 4WD Protean prototype | In-wheel motor development car | 121,000 SEK | $13,100 | 116 |
| NEVS 9-3 autonomous-driving prototype | Self-driving test car | 118,000 SEK | $12,800 | 48 |
| NEVS 9-3 range-extender prototype | Partly dismantled EV prototype | 62,000 SEK | $6,700 | 42 |
These are hammer prices. Buyer fees, VAT, transport, storage and any future registration work are separate questions. With cars like these, the invoice is only the first part of the ownership story.
The visible bidding trail also suggested concentrated buyer behavior. At least two bidder IDs appeared to secure two cars each, which points to a strategic finish rather than random one-lot curiosity. That detail matters because this auction attracted two kinds of buyers: those who wanted a running final-era Saab 9-3 with some chance of a future registration process, and those who understood the historical value of NEVS-era engineering prototypes.
The NEVS 9-3 EV took the top price
The strongest result was the NEVS 9-3 electric car with 38,000 km, sold for 252,000 SEK, or about $27,300. That made it the most expensive car in this auction by a clear margin.
This car is not one of the 2018 NEVS prototypes. Klaravik listed it as a 2019 model-year NEVS 9-3 electric car, with chassis number LV3SB1414K1000641, first Swedish registration on September 18, 2020, and first Swedish traffic date on November 24, 2020. It was described as a pre-production vehicle of the China-built NEVS Electric 9-3, used for quality review and internal transport.
The technical data is significant. Klaravik listed a 46.2 kWh battery, front-wheel drive, electric power, four-passenger configuration, 1,835 kg service weight, 2,200 kg total weight, 4,684 mm length and 1,806 mm width. The transmission field is listed as automatic, which in this EV context should be read as the car’s single-speed electric drive arrangement rather than a traditional combustion-car automatic gearbox.
Equipment included summer tires, winter tires, ACC, central locking, power windows, ABS, power steering, navigation, cruise control, reversing camera, instruction book, Bluetooth and front and rear parking sensors.
More importantly, this car started, drove forward, reversed, steered in both directions and had working brakes at the time of the auction assessment. That almost certainly helped the bidding. It was not a static exhibit. It was a complete and usable development car, even though Klaravik’s legal warning remained strict: the car was sold as a museum or collector vehicle, complete road-registration documentation was missing, and the selling company would not assist with registration for road use.
The market paid for completeness. Among the seven cars, this was the most coherent NEVS-era vehicle: China-built, Trollhättan-developed, running, equipped and visually close to a finished product.
The 18,430-km Saab 9-3 was the strongest gasoline result
The top gasoline result was the Saab 9-3 pre-series car with 18,430 km, sold for 177,000 SEK, roughly $19,200, after 90 bids.
Klaravik listed it under the title “Saab 9-3 Aero förseriebil, 1843 mil,” but the model field on the technical sheet appears simply as Saab 9-3. That distinction is worth keeping because the auction title and the structured vehicle data are not identical. The specification, however, is the one Saab collectors expected from the final NEVS-built gasoline 9-3: model year 2014, front-wheel drive, 161 kW / 218 hp, manual gearbox, gasoline engine, four seats and one key.
The VIN is YTNFD4MZ3E1100015. The car had its first Swedish registration on December 13, 2013, first traffic date on December 19, 2013, and a last approved inspection dated December 13, 2013. Klaravik also listed the vehicle as EU M1 category, 1,630 kg service weight, 2,130 kg total weight, 4,668 mm long and 1,802 mm wide.
This car had been used as a guard car at NEVS, which gives it a very specific factory role. It was not just stored as an untouched exhibit. It had lived inside the facility, doing ordinary internal work after Saab Automobile had already disappeared as a manufacturer.
Condition notes were relatively favorable for this group. It had been used up to the start of the auction, showed visible wear, had been serviced in a workshop within the previous twelve months, and started, drove, reversed, steered and braked.
That combination explains the price. For a determined buyer in the right country, this is the kind of car that at least gives a starting point for a registration attempt: a known VIN, a conventional drivetrain, Swedish registration history, EU M1 classification, working condition and a production-based specification. None of that guarantees anything, but it gives the buyer more to work with than a dead prototype missing major systems.
The 38,781-km Saab 9-3 Aero attracted the most bids
The most actively contested gasoline Saab was the Saab 9-3 Aero pre-series car with 38,781 km. It sold for 159,000 SEK, around $17,200, after 155 bids.
This is important because an earlier working draft listed 121 bids, which understates how much attention this car received. Klaravik’s final sold-object list shows 155 bids, making it the highest-bid Saab/NEVS lot in the group.
Mechanically, it is close to the lower-mileage 18,430-km car: model year 2014, 161 kW / 218 hp, front-wheel drive, manual gearbox, gasoline fuel and four-passenger layout. Klaravik listed the VIN as YTNFD4MZ9E1100018, with first Swedish registration on December 16, 2013, first traffic on December 20, 2013, and last approved inspection on December 16, 2013.
It was described as a pre-production vehicle from the first NEVS-built series, known as model year 2014, used as a test car and internal transport vehicle. The equipment list included summer tires, ACC, central locking, power windows, ABS, power steering, cruise control, instruction book and front and rear parking sensors.
The condition report gives the market logic behind the final price. The car had been used up to the start of the auction, but service had not been carried out in the previous twelve months. It showed wear, but it started, drove forward, reversed, steered and braked.
That made it a serious collector candidate, but not the top one. The lower-mileage car had the mileage advantage and recent service. This car had the bid-count drama. Saab buyers understood the compromise: more use, lower price, same final-chapter factory story.
The 58,646-km Saab 9-3 pre-series car landed at 142,000 SEK
The third gasoline Saab was the Saab 9-3 pre-series car with 58,646 km, sold for 142,000 SEK, around $15,400, after 134 bids.
This car was listed as Saab 9-3 förseriebil, 5864 mil, with VIN YTNFD4MZ4E1100010. It had model year 2014 data, 161 kW / 218 hp, front-wheel drive, chain-driven camshaft, manual gearbox, gasoline power and a towbar with a listed maximum trailer weight of 1,600 kg.
Its Swedish registration data is early in the final NEVS/Saab sequence: first registration on December 5, 2013, first traffic on December 16, 2013, and last approved inspection on December 5, 2013. Klaravik described it as a pre-production vehicle from the first series of cars made by NEVS, used as a test car and internal transport vehicle.
This car had been used up to the start of the auction and was marked as serviced within the previous twelve months. It also started, drove, reversed, steered and braked. On those points, it was more usable than the prototypes.
The condition notes were less gentle. Klaravik reported play in the front suspension, rust in both front fenders, scratches and scuffs, a loose right rear lamp in its plastic mounting, interior wear, and an active engine warning light.
For a Saab owner, none of that sounds exotic. Suspension play, body rust, trim issues and warning lights are repair topics, not philosophical problems. The real question is the same as with the other gasoline cars: documentation. Klaravik stated clearly that complete documentation was missing, that the seller could not assist with road-registration paperwork, and that the vehicle could not be driven on public roads in its current status.
Among the three gasoline cars, this is the most workmanlike one. It may not have the same collector shine as the 18,430-km car, but it reflects how these vehicles were actually used inside NEVS. It was a factory tool, not a display piece.
The in-wheel motor NEVS 9-3 was the engineering prize
The NEVS 9-3 4WD prototype with wheel-mounted electric motors sold for 121,000 SEK, about $13,100, after 116 bids.
This was not a normal electric 9-3. Klaravik described it as a 2018 prototype with four wheel-mounted motors, used for the development of in-wheel motor technology, chassis tuning and brake-system tuning. It had VIN LTPSB1410J1000031, 4WD, electric power, automatic drive listing, four seats, one key, EU M1 category, 1,835 kg service weight, 2,200 kg total weight, 4,684 mm length and 1,806 mm width.
Its technical value is obvious. With propulsion located directly at the wheels, the car belongs to the same engineering conversation that later made the NEVS Emily GT so interesting: torque control, braking integration, packaging, unsprung mass, chassis calibration and the question of how far a legacy 9-3 body could be pushed as an electric development platform.
We previously covered how Protean in-wheel motor development moved from NEVS Saab 9-3 testing toward the Renault 5 Turbo 3E program. This auction car is one of the physical bridge points in that story. It is not simply a failed NEVS prototype. It is part of the technical route that kept in-wheel motor development alive beyond Trollhättan.
The condition report explains why it did not go higher. The car had not been used in the previous six months, was sold as a repair object, did not start, did not drive, did not steer, did not brake, and had no power from the 12V battery at the time of assessment. The trunk could not be opened. Klaravik also made the same museum/collector warning about missing documentation and lack of registration support.
That makes it a difficult car, but a historically serious one. The buyer did not buy convenience. The buyer bought a development node.
The autonomous-driving NEVS 9-3 sold for 118,000 SEK
The NEVS 9-3 autonomous-driving test prototype sold for 118,000 SEK, about $12,800, after 48 bids.
This is one of the most visually and technically distinct cars in the sale. Klaravik described it as a prototype equipped with recording and measurement hardware such as GPS, lidar and cameras, used for the development of autonomous-driving software.
The technical base is a 2018 NEVS 9-3, VIN LTPSB1415J1000025, with 130 kW / 176 hp, front-wheel drive, 46.2 kWh battery capacity, electric power, automatic drive listing and four seats. It had first Swedish registration on May 7, 2018, first traffic on May 15, 2018, and a last approved inspection on May 7, 2018.
The condition put it firmly in the museum-and-research category. It had not been used in recent years, did not start, did not drive, did not steer, did not brake, and parts may have been missing.
Even so, its importance should not be reduced to non-running status. This car shows that NEVS was using the 9-3 platform as an active test base for autonomous software, sensor arrays and data recording. The 9-3 body was available, familiar to engineers and structurally useful for experimental hardware. That made it a practical carrier for work that had moved far beyond Saab’s original gasoline production program.
The sale price reflects the reality. This is not a weekend EV project. It is a piece of test infrastructure with a Saab-shaped body.
The range-extender prototype was the bargain, but for a clear reason
The lowest result was the NEVS 9-3 range-extender prototype, sold for 62,000 SEK, about $6,700, after 42 bids.
On paper, it may be the strangest car in the group. Klaravik listed it as a 2014 NEVS 9-3 prototype, VIN YTNFD4MZXE1000025, with 100 kW / 135 hp, front-wheel drive, automatic drive listing, electric fuel category and four seats. It had first Swedish registration on June 10, 2014, first traffic on June 12, 2014, and last approved inspection on June 10, 2014.
Klaravik described it as a camouflaged electric prototype with a fuel-driven range extender, used as a development vehicle for an external customer project. It was also described as a pre-series/prototype vehicle with both gasoline and electric elements.
The problem was condition. The high-voltage battery had been removed. The interior was partly dismantled. The car did not start, did not move forward, did not reverse, did not steer and did not brake. In other words, this was not a compromised road car. It was an incomplete development mule.
That explains the hammer price. Still, the 2014 date gives it historical weight. It sits beside the final Saab-badged 9-3 cars at the exact point when NEVS was still testing what a post-Saab electric 9-3 strategy might become. The range-extender concept reflects a specific EV industry moment, before longer-range battery-only cars became the cleaner commercial answer for most manufacturers.
This car documents a technical path that NEVS considered, tested and then left behind.
Which cars could realistically be registered?
This is the question many Saab enthusiasts asked before the auction closed.
The honest answer is: none of these cars should be presented as easy registration candidates. Klaravik’s warning was consistent. The cars were sold as museum or collector vehicles. Complete documentation was missing. The selling company would not provide road-registration support. The vehicles could not be driven on public roads in their auction status and had to be collected by trailer.
That warning should not be softened.
But the seven cars do not carry the same level of difficulty. The three gasoline Saab 9-3 pre-series cars are the most plausible starting points for any future registration attempt. They have conventional Saab 9-3 mechanical layouts, model-year 2014 data, known VINs, Swedish registration references, EU M1 classification and running condition. For a patient buyer in a country with individual vehicle approval procedures, that combination at least creates a foundation.
The China-built NEVS 9-3 EV is the second interesting case. It is complete, running and equipped, but its documentation route may be more complicated in markets without prior NEVS approval history.
The autonomous-driving prototype, the in-wheel motor prototype and the range-extender prototype belong in a different category. Two do not run. The range-extender car is missing its high-voltage battery and is partly dismantled. The 4WD in-wheel motor car is technically fascinating, but it is a non-running repair object. Any road-registration discussion around those cars is speculative.
Marcus and Manuela captured the factory-floor atmosphere
Marcus and Manuela from their Saab-focused YouTube channel were present in Trollhättan and filmed the auction atmosphere from inside the factory gates. Their video adds something the bid table cannot show: the cars lined up, the people around them, the setting, and the strange seriousness of watching these vehicles prepare to leave NEVS custody.
The auction felt like a public sale, but also like an inventory being released from a frozen chapter of Trollhättan history.
What the prices tell us
The results were structured, not random.
The market paid the most for the complete and running NEVS EV. It paid strong money for the running gasoline Saab 9-3 pre-series cars, especially the lowest-mileage example. It placed the non-running and incomplete prototypes below the usable cars, even when the engineering story was more unusual.
That hierarchy makes sense. The badge matters in a Saab auction, but Saab buyers tend to read the details. Mileage matters. Running condition matters. VIN status matters. Inspection history matters. Documentation matters. The possibility, however difficult, of future registration matters.
The strongest emotional pull came from the phrase “last Saab 9-3s,” but the auction itself was more technical than sentimental. A low-mileage 2014 gasoline 9-3 with a manual gearbox and recent service is a very different proposition from a lidar-equipped autonomous test car. A complete China-built NEVS EV is not the same as a range-extender mule without its high-voltage battery.
The final numbers show that bidders understood those differences.
Trollhättan’s afterlife now moves into private hands
These seven cars have now left the NEVS auction story and entered private hands. Some will likely end up in collections. Some may be studied. Some may be displayed. A few may become long legal projects for owners willing to test whether registration is possible.
The auction did not create a new Saab future. It did something more concrete. It released physical evidence of the engineering work that continued in Trollhättan after Saab Automobile collapsed in 2011.
The final gasoline 9-3 pre-series cars, the NEVS electric sedan, the autonomous-driving test vehicle, the in-wheel motor prototype and the range-extender mule all represent different attempts to keep using the same 9-3 platform after the original company was gone. Some were close to normal road cars. Some were experimental dead ends. Some were technical test benches with registration plates in their past and legal questions in their future.
None of them are sitting behind NEVS gates anymore. That alone makes this one of the most consequential Saab-related sales in recent years.
The Trollhättan auction now has its final numbers
The story that began with NEVS opening the gates in Trollhättan has now reached its outcome. All seven Saab and NEVS 9-3-based cars have found new owners, with the China-built NEVS 9-3 EV taking the highest final bid and the running 2014 Saab 9-3 pre-series cars attracting some of the strongest collector interest.
The final results also show a clear split between cars that may have some realistic registration path and prototypes that belong more naturally in collections, museums or engineering archives. We have now published the complete Trollhättan auction breakdown, including final prices, bid counts, USD conversions and technical details for every Saab and NEVS 9-3 sold.
