The story
Founded by Steve Saleen in 1983, in Irvine.1
1980s
The Saleen brand was established in 1983 originally as "Saleen Autosport" by Steve Saleen, a former professional Formula Atlantic race-car driver. The first Saleens were produced in 1984 when they built three cars as the first production run – a white hatchback, a bright copper-glow five-speed hatchback, and a black hatchback.
In 1985, Steve Saleen put the first certified supercharger on a production Saleen Mustang. This car was delivered to Nault Ford in Manchester, New Hampshire, and was the first use of a centrifugal supercharger on a late-model Mustang.
In 1986, the Saleen made its entry into the Sport Car Club of America race series with a race-prepared version of the Saleen Mustang. A notable win that year at the 24 Hours of Mosport was the catalyst for Saleen vehicles becoming heavily involved in motorsport throughout the rest of the 1980s.
1990s
In 1990, in response to increased aftermarket parts demand, Saleen established Saleen Performance Parts. In 1994, Saleen debuted the S351, which had a Saleen-built 351 cubic-inch engine. Despite the Mustang GT changing to the modular V8 in 1996, Saleen continued with development of their own EPA-certified 351W engine.
In 1995, Steve Saleen teamed up with comedian Tim Allen and formed the Saleen-Allen "RRR" Speedlab race team. In 1997, Saleen introduced a Saleen Contour concept and an SUV, the Saleen XP8 Explorer. In the late 1990s, the company, founded in 1984, was restructured and became "Saleen, Inc."
2000s
In 2000, Saleen introduced its flagship vehicle, the Saleen S7 sports car. The S7 is a mid-engine, high-performance sports car that was initially priced at just under US$400,000. The S7 won four different GT championships in 2001 and has broken records at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race. The S7 was Saleen's only production car not based on an existing design or chassis.
In 2001, Saleen moved its production facilities to a new 100,000-square-foot facility in Irvine, California.
In 2002, Saleen was awarded the assembly and paint contract for the new Ford sports car, the Ford GT. This effectively made Saleen a tier-1 supplier to the Ford Motor Company. In 2003, Saleen set up a special manufacturing and licensing agreement for distribution of Saleen vehicles in Canada.
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In 2004, Saleen expanded its operations and manufacturing to an additional 203,000-square-foot facility in Troy, Michigan. The new $15 million production facility included a high-tech paint facility and assembly line where Saleen produced the Ford GT under contract from Ford Motor Company. In 2005, global distribution was expanded to include Japan under a new partnership with a Tokyo-based importer.
In 2006, Saleen opened its first own-branded retail store in an outdoor shopping center, in Irvine. The showroom was described as a unique shopping experience for Saleen vehicles, parts, and apparel. In 2007, Saleen began working with Chrysler and supplied all the paint work for the new Dodge Viper.
In 2009, Saleen released the SMS570 Dodge Challenger.
2010–present
In 2010, 2011 Saleen Mustangs were made in Detroit by Revstone, the company that purchased and legally produced 42 Saleens those years. Steve Saleen was selling Mustangs under the SMS name, as he did not legally own the name Saleen. At the end of 2011, an agreement was reached between Ford, Revstone, and Steve Saleen to let him start producing under the Saleen name again.
On June 26, 2013, Saleen became public through a reverse merger. It was listed on the OTC Bulletin Board and is controlled and majority owned by Steve Saleen. Later that year, the Saleen operations, manufacturing, research and development, and paint facilities were announced to be consolidated to a four-acre campus in Southern California.
In 2014, Saleen entered into an agreement to expand vehicle distribution to include China. In August 2014, Saleen unveiled an all-electric performance model, the Foursixteen (a tuned version of the Tesla Model S).
By the end of 2014, the company was in significant debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. During 2015, in an attempt to raise money, the company offered a Saleen Mustang to investors who put up more than $1 million in capital. The company settled a lawsuit with a journalist critical of their business models.
The Securities and Exchange Commission revoked the registration of Saleen's securities on October 12, 2017. The company reverted to being privately held at this time. In 2022, Electrek reported that Saleen was seeking small investors with a minimum of $500 to invest in the company, and that as of September 2021 Saleen had only $14,000 cash on hand.
2017–19
In 2017, Saleen and his business partner Charlie Wang (Xiaolin Wang, in Chinese) formed a joint venture with Rugao, China (a city 107 miles northwest of Shanghai in Jiangsu province), creating a company named "Jiangsu Saleen Automotive Technology" (Chinese: 赛麟汽车) in Rugao, with Charlie Wang as Chairman, CEO, and majority owner of the company. Charlie Wang was a lawyer who had worked at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, from which he abruptly resigned, and then was CEO of Hybrid Kinetic Motors before its owner Yang Rong sued him for re-issuing shares of the company under Wang's own control, and subsequently founded and was CEO of GreenTech Automotive, before it went bankrupt. Only Nantong Jiahe, a state-owned shareholder, invested in Saleen Automobile–it invested CNY3.4 billion (US$481.3 million) and owned 34% of the company; the other four shareholders of the company were shell companies controlled by Wang. The company was to produce and distribute Saleen vehicles in China for the Chinese market. CEO Wang said: "We have adopted highly efficient intelligent production, which will make us one of the very few to do so in China," and that the company would "produce all sorts of passenger cars including sedans, SUVs, and crossovers." He said that he wanted to turn the company into a brand rivaling Porsche.
The government provided incentives and the company received capital that reportedly enabled the company to invest 17.8 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion) in a first factory, which Wang said would have the capacity to produce 150,000 cars annually. The company then acquired 4 billion yuan, and invested in another factory nearby, which Wang said would produce 50,000 pure electric vehicles and 20,000 super cars annually. CEO Wang said: "Among all EV manufacturers in China, [we are] the most effective. We have rich experience in financial control."
In 2019, the Chinese joint venture presented an updated version of the Saleen S7 (called the S7 Le Mans), at an event which featured actor Jason Statham at the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing. In addition to their American sports car, the company also promoted a few Rugao-built vehicles, including a crossover called the "MAC".
The company's only mass-produced model that it sold was the low-end pure electric microcar called the "MaiMai", with a maximum speed of 100 km/h and a new European driving cycle range of 305 km, which was introduced in 2019. However, only 27 had sold as of April 2021, and only 31 as of May 2022. It was priced at CNY 160,000 (US$24,048), and had been built at a cost of CNY 5 billion (US$751 million).
2020–present
In February 2020, the company's new Rugao factory was closed.
In April 2020, the former senior legal manager at Saleen, Qiao Yudong, said that company chairman Charles Wang had made false claims about technology investment, and had embezzled millions of dollars from the state by inflating the costs of so-called "car-making technologies." Qiao said that Wang inflated the costs of two car-making technologies valued at US$500,000 and US$20 million, to US$826 million and US$1.1 billion, and then traded them for US$283.2 million in cash and also transferred them into equity ownership, reducing the ownership interests of state-owned investors. The one-third investor Nantong Jiahe conducted a financial audit and suspected Wang of providing false documents, and exploiting his position as CEO to steal large amounts of money, the administrative committee of the Jiangsu Rugao Economic and Technological Development Zone said. The state investor then reported the matter to the police, which accepted the complaint.
in June 2020, the Nantong Intermediate People's Court in China seized all of the company's assets, closed two Saleen Auto local factories, froze the equity of four shell companies owned by Wang that in turn were co-owners of Saleen Auto, expelled all of the company's foreign employees, froze the company's bank accounts, and closed Saleen Auto’s Shanghai branch eight months after it had been opened.
The Chinese government said that Charlie Wang embezzled nearly $1 billion in state funds. Wang then absconded to the United States. In July 2020, Wang said that he had returned “back to my good old business as a lawyer and a law professor,” and that the developments with the company was persecution, though he did not name his persecutors; he did not say when he would return to China. That month, Wang also sued the joint venture's China partner in Hong Kong, alleging it had breached a joint venture agreement and owed CNY300 million (US$42.8 million).
The Nantong Intermediate People's Court put the company up for auction on May 30, 2022, including the company's uncompleted production facility in Rugao that was supposed to be completed in 2019 and be able to produce 150,000 cars per year.
From Wikipedia’s article on Saleen, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3