Instead of a comeback car, Borgward only had a classic Isabella Coupe on its massive stand at Geneva to remind us all how long it's been since they disappeared. We'll have to wait until September when they reveal their (most likely electrified) SUV at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Borgward might have employed 23,000 people in its heyday as their press release says, but despite making more than a million cars, the company went down in 1961.
Apparently, the grandson of company founder Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Borgward has been working on this project with businessman Karlheinz L. Knöss and Head of Design Einar Hareide for more than a decade now, mostly in secrecy.
The new company will be headquartered in Stuttgart (just like Porsche), and will focus on Germany and emerging markets like China at first, where Borgward is planning to set up local production facilities. They also claim they'll introduce "two to three" models "every year" until they complete their product range.
As for the first member of that range, it's going to be a SUV, because "Borgward has always built the cars people wanted to buy", and SUVs are the money makers in their target markets. Different times, different cars I guess:
The new company says Borgward was the third largest automotive manufacturer in Germany during the '50s mostly due to being "regarded as innovative, elegant, and reliable" at the time and these are the values they put on their wall "as the company prepares to engage with a wildly different automotive landscape."
The old-new German premium brand wishes to focus on electric power-assisted propulsion concepts and "a state-of-the-art e-mobility system" while also giving us all the connectivity and infotainment options we desire, turning the cars into "your personal assistant, companion, entertainer, information provider, and caretaker – wherever you are."
Since we're talking about "accessible premium" here instead of a Bentley SUV, Borgward is looking into scaling options, industry synergies and new partnerships to save on R&D and make production as efficient as possible. Plus, you'll buy your Borgward SUV online instead of at a dealership.
Can all this ever work?
Let's see that SUV first, but at least two out of the three guys involved are German. A ray of light, right there.
Photo credit: Máté Petrány/Jalopnik
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