UPDATE: Saab Returns

Saab Automobile resumed low-volume production at its factory in Trollhattan, Sweden, on Monday.

The company's owner Chinese consortium National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB says initial output of about 200 cars will be sold in Sweden and China next spring at about $42,500 each.

The consortium acquired Saab in 2012, a year after the carmaker went bankrupt. NEVS has been reconstructing Saab's supply chain since then.

The original plan was to relaunch the Saab in 2014 as an electric car company, beginning with a battery-powered version of a next-generation 9-3 midsize sedan. The consortium later decided to first resume production of the same piston-powered 9-3 that Saab stopped making in 2011.

NEVS says it will add a conventionally powered 9-3 wagon and an electric 9-3 sedan in 2014. China will be the EV's first market.

NEVS said earlier it will use revenue generated by sales of the conventional 9-3 models to help fund the EV program. As revenue builds, the company will eventually migrate to an updated 9-3 that uses the all-new Phoenix platform Saab developed shortly before it went bankrupt in 2012.