Saab, having suffered the indignity of a thousand financial cuts under General Motors and latterly private Spyker ownership, finally died in 2011. It was the end of a company that had made some truly great cars over the years – the 99 Turbo, the original 900, the Opel Insignia-based 9-5 – and which had contributed much to automotive technology and especially safety, but that wasn’t enough to keep it going. In 2012, what remained of Saab was bought up by a Chinese company calling itself National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS). It apparently dabbled a little with an electric saloon based...