Valmet Automotive

Valmet Automotive Oy
legal form	Corporation
founding	1968
Seat	Uusikaupunki , Finland
management	Olaf Bongwald (President)
Number of employees	6000
sales	663 million euros (2018)
Branch	Development and manufacturing service provider for the automotive industry
Website	www.valmet-automotive.com
	Status: 2017

Uusikaupunki plant 2018

Start of production at Valmet 2011: the Fisker Karma from Fisker Automotive

Porsche Cayman

Valmet Automotive (Saab-Valmet until 1995) is a Finnish development and manufacturing service provider for the automotive industry. Valmet Automotive's customers include or included, for example, Mercedes-Benz , Porsche , BMW / MINI , Bentley , Saab and Opel .

history

Mercedes-Benz GLC and A-Class

The company was founded in 1968 under the name Saab-Valmet in Uusikaupunki , Finland , as a joint venture between the Finnish Valmet and the Swedish Saab-Scania AB . The aim was to develop automotive know-how in Finland, to build up a supplier network and to create new jobs. The first vehicle, a Saab 96 , was delivered on November 13, 1969. In 1992 Valmet became the sole owner. In 1995 the company was renamed Valmet Automotive. Following the merger of Rauma and Valmet in 1999, Metso Corporation became the owner of Valmet Automotive.

The automotive sector is not part of Metso's core business. Due to the positive development opportunities in this sector, Metso decided to bring external investors on board. Together with the Finnish holding companies Pontos Group and Suomen Teollisuussijoitus (German: Finland's industrial holdings ), the company's capital base was strengthened. Both financial investors each invested 10 million euros in Valmet Automotive and thus received a total of 34 percent of the shares in Valmet Automotive.

As part of the focus on its core business, Metso also sold its remaining shares at the beginning of 2015. As a result, the share of Pontus and Teollisuussijoitus increased to 47.5 percent each, the remaining 5 percent was transferred to the company's management.

When the car factory started production in Uusikaupunki in 1969, the primary objective was to manufacture Saab vehicles for the Finnish market. The high quality and flexibility of production also opened the doors to export markets.

After the end of production of the Saab 96 was foreseeable, the Talbot Horizon was put into production as the successor in 1979. The vehicle was further developed by Saab-Valmet with parts developed in Finland. This made the vehicle suitable for the extreme Finnish conditions. The Saab-Valmet Horizon was sold through Saab sales in Finland. The success of the Horizon meant that a little later the Talbot 1510 and Talbot Solara models could also be produced according to the same specifications.

Saab Finlandia developed by Saab-Valmet led to the Saab 900 CD, which was also exported. Due to the experience gained with the 900 CD, the company received the development and production order for the Saab 900 Cabriolet.

For example, the following models were manufactured in 1986: Saab 90 , Saab 900 , Saab 900 CD, Saab 900 Cabriolet and Saab 9000 . In the record year of 1992, the number of Saab and Opel Calibra vehicles produced totaled 46,688 units. Saab production was stopped in April 2003 with the 1st generation Saab 9-3 . From 1997 (September) to 2010 the Porsche Boxster was built in Uusikaupunki in a number of 168,495. Between autumn 2005 and spring 2011, 59,413 Porsche Cayman were also assembled. In autumn 2010 the pre-series of the Fisker Karma was started.

As announced in summer 2012, the Mercedes-Benz A-Class has also been manufactured in Uusikaupunki in cooperation with Mercedes-Benz since August 30, 2013 . The production volume increased from 7,600 vehicles in 2013 to over 90,000 in 2017. From 2012 to 2014 there was also a cooperation with the Russian sports car manufacturer Marussia . Since February 2017, additional units of the Mercedes GLC have been manufactured for Daimler at the Valmet Automotive plant in Uusikaupunki .

The cooperation between Valmet Automotive and Mercedes-Benz will be continued with the production of the new generation of the Mercedes-Benz A-Class (W177) at the Uusikaupunki plant. The start of production took place on July 10, 2018.

In January 2017, the Chinese battery manufacturer CATL acquired 22% of the shares in Valmet Automotive as the basis for a strategic partnership in the production of electrified vehicles.

Saab 9-3 Viggen
Saab 900 convertible (1993)
Saab 90 (1985-1986)
Talbot Solara (1984–1985)
Think City (2010)
Fisker Karma (2010)

Valmet Automotive / Saab-Valmet cars

Saab 95 , 1969-1975
Saab 96 , 1969-1980
Saab 99 , 1969-1984
Saab Finlandia , 1977-1978
Saab 900 , 1978-1998
Saab-Valmet Horizon , 1979-1985
Talbot 1510 , Talbot Solara , 1979-1985
Saab 90 , 1984-1987
Saab 9000 , 1986-1990
Opel Calibra , 1991–1997
Lada Samara Baltic , 1996-1998
Porsche Boxster , 1997–2010
Saab 9-3 , 1998-2003
Porsche Cayman , 2005–2011
Garia Golf Car , since 2009
Think City , 2009–2011
Fisker Karma , since 2011
Mercedes-Benz A-Class , since 2013
Mercedes-Benz GLC , since 2017

Prototypes and studies

Prototype of the Saab 9000 Cabriolet

Even at the time of Saab-Valmet, the company was building prototypes , but they did not reach the public. This changed after the takeover of the Saab shares: these vehicles were now publicly exhibited , mostly at the Geneva Motor Show . Here are the most important:

Saab 9000 Cabriolet (1989)
Ecobus (1994)
Saab 900 II Coupe
Opel Calibra Cabriolet
Saab-based Isatis (1996)
Boréal based on Opel (1997)
Honda CR-V open air (1998)
Porsche-based Zerone (1999)
Volvo-based Hatric (2001)
Volvo C70 Coupé Cabriolet (2002)
Thunderbird Retractable Glass Roof (2003)
Audi A4 Coupé Convertible (2004)
Audi A4 Coupé Cabrio II (2006)
Electric concept vehicle "Eva" (2010)

Roof systems

At the end of 2010, the roof division of the former Karmann Group supplemented the automotive division of Valmet Automotive. The locations in Osnabrück and Żary (Poland) were acquired. The roof modules for the convertible models from Bentley , BMW / Mini and Mercedes-Benz are currently being manufactured . With this takeover, Valmet significantly expanded its convertible know-how as well as its capacity in development and module production .