Founded in 1945 in Sweden, Saab was a car manufacturer based in Trollhättan. Throughout its history, Saab changed owners several times. First owned by Saab AB, the company was then merged with Scania-Vabis in 1968. After that, it was purchased by General Motors in 1990, then sold to Spyker N.V. in 2012. Its last owner was NEVS, which lost its license to produce vehicles under the Saab name in 2014.

Saab's first production model was the 1951 Saab 92, which featured a transversely mounted engine with a water-cooled two-cylinder two-stroke construction. It could produce 25 horsepower and reached speeds as high as 65 mph. The Saab 92 originally cost $1,400, or the equivalent of $13,126 in current value. While Saab no longer manufactures automobiles, its model lineup included the 900, 92, 95, 96, 99, 9-3, 9-5, Aero-X, GT750, Sonnet, Sport, Formula Junior, 9-2X Linear, Ursaab, Monster, Quantum, Catherina, 9000 Cabriolet, MFI13, Toad, EV-1, Viking, Prometheus, and Phoenix. Saab's last full sales year was 2011, in which it sold 5610 vehicles in the US. The company's highest US sales came in 2003 when it sold a total of 47,914 units.

Saab began to decline during the height of the US financial crisis in the late 2000s when General Motors placed Saab under "strategic review". The company was sold to Spyker N.V. in January of 2010; Spyker attempted to revitalize Saab, showing its Phoenix concept car at the Geneva Motor Show in 2011. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to turn sales around, and production officially halted in April 2011. The company's assets were bought in 2012 by NEVs, who released a 9-3 under the Saab name, but it lost the license to produce Saab vehicles in 2014.