The automaker said it’s ready to increase the number of cars rolling off assembly lines each day at its Trollhättan factory in western Sweden to 220, up from the current 100 vehicles a day.

The change marks a first step toward resuming normal production levels.

“We’re going to increase the pace from the first week, and go from 13 cars an hour to 28 cars an hour, Paul Åkerlund, the IF Metall union chair at Saab, told the local TTELA newspaper.

Today’s production pace is so low that customers have been forced to wait too long to take possession of new Saabs.

In recent months, 64 of the 700 people laid off from the factory have been re-hired.

Åkerlund thinks that more workers need to be re-hired if Saab is going to meet its new, higher production goals, and hopes that the factory will increase production further next year.

According to current forecasts, Saab expects to sell about 60,000 cars in 2010.