The new owners of Swedish carmaker Saab, National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS), restarted production of the 9-3 sedan on Monday at the Trollhattan factory in Sweden, according to a NEVS spokesman.

The 9-3 sedan will be powered by a turbocharged gasoline engine and built in "small and humble numbers" for China and Sweden, NEVS spokesman Mikael Ostlund said.

The move comes almost two years after Saab, which had made cars since 1947, filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2011. Saab was previously owned by General Motors Co, which sold it to Dutch sports car group Spyker in 2010.

NEVS, which is 22 percent owned by the Chinese city of Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, through the city's investment company, bought most of the assets of Saab last year. Ostlund reiterated that an electric 9-3 sedan is expected to launch in China next year.

Saab said in January that it would build a 10 billion yuan ($1.64 billion) plant in Qingdao.

The vehicle that begins production Monday will look similar to the last 9-3s that rolled off the line in Trollhattan in 2011. But Ostlund said NEVS may revamp the 9-3 when it is launched as an electric sedan next year in China.