Chinese owned Swedish car company NEVS, National Electric Vehicle Sweden, has announced it is returning the Saab 9-3 to the market as an electric vehicle. The new 9-3 will have a 300-kilometer range or about 185 miles, which should easily be enough to commute to work and perform errands especially in a city.

As charging stations become ubiquitous, that range will likely increase. No dates are offered but the first phase of deployment calls for annual production of 50,000 units ramping to 220,000. The 9-3 was almost a cult car and that makes it a good choice for bridging into electric driving for a lot of people.

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This represents a classic case of a disruptive technology diffusing into the society and the economy. Cities are getting a lot of attention from electric and self-driving car companies because they are the places where it’s easiest to deploy infrastructure. The same kind of thing happened with deployment of telephone, cable TV and even electricity. A story from Australia discusses the business benefits of having charging stations on Main Street.

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Volkswagen appears to be going big into electric vehicles and 2019 appears to be the release date for the Volkswagen ID, a Golf-sized electric expected to have a 200 mile driving range.

If you’ve been paying attention 2019 looks to be a watershed year for electric driving as numerous car companies are gearing up production plans for that year.

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