Imposing financial discipline is one thing. Mistaking ephemeral "brand value" for engineering prowess and reputation (typical of marketing-oriented mgmt), as cited above, is quite another.

Being required to optimize for another real-world constraint (i.e., cost in this case) is more work, but ultimately just another task for an engineer. Being required to not engineer greatest-practical-stuff, but just slap the name on some junk is not the same thing, but marketing people can't see that, even though customers can.

I'm concerned about the Chinese ownership, but that seems murky now, since NEVS bought a stake or strategic partnership, then got bought 51% by Chinese real estate conglomerate Evergrande, which is deeply in debt, and NEVS is now in "permanent hibernation mode", essentially liquidating. I wonder if there's opportunity to get it back in control of democratic nations. Anyone have deeper information?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEVS

Saab had been nationally subsidized for a while and I think expected to receive support that didn’t work out. It was strange how all projections showed failure but they continued on.

Not sure why Sweden decided to make them go independent, but if GM hadn’t bought them, they would have died sooner