The MOU was signed with the aim of investigating "whatever forms of cooperation possible" with BAIC, Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker Cars told Automotive News China on April 25 after he signed a joint venture agreement with China Automobile Trading Co. on the distribution of Spyker luxury cars.

"They can become our distributor for China. We could do joint sourcing, and in the future we can perhaps build cars with them for the Chinese market. There are many areas for potential cooperation,"said Muller. 

In December last year, BAIC purchased all rights to the previous generation Saab 9-5 and some technologies from the current Saab 9-3. In February this year, Spyker acquired the Saab unit from General Motors.

As part of the deal with Saab, BAIC acquired the 9-5's tooling, which has been shipped from Saab's plant in Trollhatten, Sweden, to China.

As new owner of the Saab brand, Spyker is providing engineering services for BAIC to help the state-owned Chinese company build its own brand sedans on the old Saab platforms it has bought. 

Spyker has yet to make further progress in its cooperation with BAIC, Muller added. "The MOU is the only thing we have with them and we haven't made any commitment to anyone at this time," he said.

Speaking to media on April 23 during the Beijing auto show, BAIC's president Xu Heyi said his company plans to launch five models developed with Saab's technologies at the end of 2011. These cars will be priced from more than 100,000 yuan ($14,641) to some 300,000 yuan ($43,924) per unit. 

Currently, Saab cars are imported into China by Shanghai GM, a joint venture between GM and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. 

In the first quarter of this year, a total of 230 Saab cars were sold in China, up 60 percent from a year earlier, according to statistics from Automotive Resources Asia, a J.D. Power unit.