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Volvo Information

The Volvo Group is a Swedish supplier of commercial vehicles such as trucks, buses and construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications, aerospace components and financial services. Although Volvo was incorporated in 1915 as a subsidiary of AB SKF, a Swedish ball bearing manufacturer, the auto manufacturer was officially founded on 14 April 1927, when the first car rolled out of the factory in Hisingen, Gothenburg.

Volvo means "I roll" in Latin, conjugated from "volvere" (cp the ball bearing producer SKF). The name Volvo was originally registered in May 1911 as a separate company within SKF AB and as a registered trademark with the intention to be used for a special series of ball bearing, but this idea was only used for a short period of time and SKF decided to use "SKF" as the trademark for all its bearing products.

In 1924, Assar Gabrielsson, a SKF Sales Manager, and Engineer Gustav Larson, the two founders, decided to start construction of a Swedish car. Their vision was to build cars that can withstand the rigors of Sweden's rough roads and cold temperatures. This has become a feature of Volvo products ever since.

The company AB Volvo had no activities until 10 August 1926, after one year of preparations involving the production of ten prototypes, was set up to carry out the car-manufacturing business within the SKF group. Volvo AB was introduced at the Stockholm stock exchange in 1935 and SKF then decided to sell its shares in the company. Volvo was delisted from NASDAQ in June 2007, but remains listed on the Stockholm exchange.

The first series produced Volvo automobile, the Volvo OV 4, left the factory on 14 April 1927 which became the official date for the founding of Volvo.

In 1999 Volvo sold its car division Volvo Cars to Ford for $6.45 billion. Repeated reports in the media about Ford selling off Volvo Cars have been refuted by the company. However, on 1 December 2008, Ford announced that it will "re-evaluate its strategic options for Volvo", including the possible sale of the marque.

The Volvo Group has its origin in 1927 when the first Volvo car rolled off the production line at the factory in Goteborg. Only 297 cars were built that year. The first truck, the "Series 1", debuted in January 1928, was an immediate success and attracted attention outside the country. In 1930, Volvo sold 639 cars, and the export of trucks to Europe started soon after; the cars did not become well-known outside Sweden until after World War II.

Volvo Cars, or Volvo Personvagnar AB, is a Swedish automobile manufacturer founded in 1927 in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, and currently owned by Ford Motor Company.

The name Volvo, Latin for "I roll" was thought to be a good trademark for a ball bearing as well as for an automobile.

The Volvo symbol is an ancient chemistry sign for iron. The iron sign is used to symbolize the strength of iron used in the car as Sweden is known for its quality iron. The diagonal line (a strip of metal) across the grille came about to hold the actual symbol, a circle with an arrow, in front of the radiator.
The symbol for Mars has been used since ancient times to represent iron.

Volvo was originally formed as a subsidiary company to the ball bearing maker SKF. It was not until 1935 when Volvo AB was introduced on the Swedish stock exchange that SKF sold most of the shares in the company. Volvo Cars was owned by AB Volvo until 1999, when it was acquired by the Ford Motor Company as part of its Premier Automotive Group.

Volvo produces models ranging from SUVs, wagons, and sedans to compact executive sedans and coupes. With 2,500 dealerships worldwide in 100 markets; 60 percent of sales come from Europe, 30 percent from North America, and the other 10 percent is from the rest of the world.

Volvo's market share is shrinking in the North American market. However, Volvo increased its market share in new markets such as Russia, China and India. Specifically, Volvo expected sales in Russia to double and exceed 20,000 units by the end of 2007, making Russia one of the ten biggest markets for the company. Volvo already boasts the leading position in Russia's luxury car segment.

Older models were often compared to tractors, partly because Volvo AB was and still is a manufacturer of heavy equipment, earlier Bolinder-Munktell, now Volvo Construction Equipment. Considered by some to be slow and heavy, they earned the distinction "brick" as a term of endearment for the classic, block-shaped Volvo, with the more powerful turbo charged variants known as "turbobricks". More recent models have moved away from the boxy styles favored in the 1970s and 1980s and built a reputation for sporting performance, but not before the phenomenal success of factory-supported Volvo 240 turbos winning both the 1985 European Touring Car Championship (ETC) and 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC).

Owners are often proud of achieving prodigious mileages with one well-documented 1966 Volvo P1800S having been driven over 2.6 million miles. According to some figures the average age of a Volvo being discarded is 19.8 years, second only to Mercedes. Reliability is considered better than average and in the USA Volvo dealers are listed by Forbes as the 9th best general car manufacturer and 6th best for luxury cars.

Volvo company came about in Gothenburg, Sweden in the year 1927. The company was founded by SKF as a subsidiary company 100% owned by SKF. Assar Gabrielsson was appointed the managing director and Gustav Larson as the technical manager.

"Cars are driven by people. The guiding principle behind everything we make at Volvo, therefore, is and must remain, safety", Assar Gabrielsson and Gustav Larson 1927.

The trademark Volvo was first registered by SKF the 11 May 1915 with the intention to use it for a special series of ball bearing for the American market, but it was never used for this purpose. SKF trademark as it looks today was used instead for all the SKF-products. Some pre-series of Volvo-bearings stamped with the brand name 'Volvo' were manufactured but was never released to the market and it was not until 1927 that the trademark was used again, now as a trademark and company name for an automobile. The first Volvo car left the assembly line April 14, 1927 was called Volvo oV 4. After this the young company produced closed top and cabriolet vehicles, which were designed to hold strong in the Swedish climate and terrain. In the registration application for Volvo logotype in 1927, they simply made a copy of the entire radiator for oV4, viewed from the front.

In 1964 Volvo opened its Torslanda plant in Sweden, which currently is the one of its largest production sites (chiefly large cars and SUV). Then in 1965 the Ghent, Belgium plant was opened, which is the company's second largest production site (chiefly small cars). Finally in 1989 the Uddevalla plant in Sweden was opened, which is now jointly operated by Volvo Car Corporation and Pininfarina of Italy.

A collection of Volvo's most important historical vehicles are now housed a The Volvo Museum, which opened in a permanent location in Arendal at Hisingen on May 30, 1995. For several years, the collection had been housed at "The Blue Hangar," at the then closed Torslanda Airport.

Volvo cars have long been marketed and stressed their historic reputation for solidity and reliability. Prior to strong government safety regulation Volvo had been in the forefront of safety engineering.

In 1944, laminated glass was introduced in the PV model. In 1958, Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin invented and patented the modern 3-Point Safety Belt, which became standard on all Volvo cars in 1959. Volvo was the first company to produce cars with padded dashboards starting in late 1956 with their Amazon model. Additionally, Volvo developed the first rear-facing child seat in 1964 and introduced its own booster seat in 1978.

In 1986, Volvo introduced the first central high-mounted stoplight (a brake light not shared with the rear tail lights), which became federally mandated in the United States in the 1986 model year. Seat belt and child seat innovation continued as shown in the 1991 960. The 960 introduced the first three-point seat belt for the middle of the rear seat and a child safety cushion integrated in the middle armrest. Also in 1991 came the introduction of the Side Impact Protection System (SIPS) on the 940/960 and 850 models, which channeled the force of a side impact away from the doors and into the safety cage.

To add to its SIPS in 1995 Volvo was the first to introduce side airbags and installed them as standard equipment in all models in 1995. In 1998 Volvo also developed and was the first to install a head-protecting airbag, which was made standard in all new models as well as some existing models. The head-protecting airbag was not available on the 1996 C70 due to the initial design deploying the airbag from the roof; the C70, being a convertible, could not accommodate such an airbag. Later years of the C70 featured a head-protecting airbag deploying upwards from the door, negating the issue of roof position. It has been stated by many testing authorities that side head protecting curtain airbags can reduce risk of death in a side impact by up to 40% and brain injury by up to 55%, as well as protecting in a rollover situation.

In 1998, Volvo introduced its Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), a safety device to prevent injury of front seat users during collisions. In 2004, Volvo introduced the BLIS system, which detects vehicles entering the Volvo's blind spot with a side view mirror mounted sensor and alerts the driver with a light. That year also saw Volvos sold in all markets equipped with side-marker lights and daytime-running lights (the latter having already been available in many markets for some time). Much of Volvo's safety technology now also goes into other Ford vehicles. In 2005 Volvo presented the second generation of Volvo C70, it comes with extra stiff door-mounted inflatable side curtains (the first of its kind in a convertible).

In 2006 Volvo's Personal Car Communicator (PCC) remote control has been launched as an optional feature with the all new Volvo S80. This feature is fairly new to the automotive industry. Before a driver gets to their car, they are able to review the security level and know whether they have set the alarm and if the car is locked. Additionally, a heartbeat sensor warns if someone is hiding inside the car. The heartbeat sensor is rumored to also work with the SOS feature of Volvo's new telematics system. The all new Volvo S80 is also the first Volvo model to feature Adaptive cruise control (ACC) with Collision Warning and Brake Support (CWBS).

By the mid-1990s there was little to distinguish Volvo from some other manufacturers (notably Renault) on safety when put through standardized tests such as Euro NCAP. A 2005 FOLKSAM report puts the 740/940 (from 1982 on) in the 15% better than average category, the second from the top category. Also, the production of P1800 had to be stopped because it did not fulfill US safety standards. The Volvo 745 was also recalled due to that the front seatbelts mounts could break in a collision.

Since 2004 all Volvo models except for the C70 and C30 are available with an all-wheel drive system developed by Haldex Traction of Sweden.

Even though Volvo Car Corp is owned by the Ford Motor Company, the safety systems of Volvo are still made standard on all of their vehicles. Volvo has patented all of their safety innovations, including SIPS, WHIPS, ROPS, DSTC, IC, and body structures. Some of these systems have shown up in other Ford vehicles in related forms to that of Volvo systems only because Volvo has licenced the FOMOCO and other PAG members to utilize these features.

Starting with the 140 series in 1968, Volvo used a tri-digit system for their cars. The first number was the series, the second number the number of cylinders and the third number the number of doors; so a 164 was a 1-series with a 6-cylinder engine and 4-doors. However, there were exceptions to this rule-the 780 for example, came with turbocharged I4 and naturally-aspirated V6 petrol engines and I6 diesel engines, but never an eight cylinder as the 8 would suggest. Similarly, the 760 often was equipped with a turbocharged I4 engine and the Volvo 360 only had four cylinders. Some 240GLT had a V6 engine. The company dropped the meaning of the final digit for later cars like the 740, but the digit continued to identify cars underhood on the identification plate. Volvo Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN codes) had always been given YV1 symbolizing Sweden, Volvo, and Volvo Car Corp

Volvo 140 (Volvo 142, Volvo 144, Volvo 145)
Volvo 164
Volvo 240 (Volvo 242, 244, 245)
Volvo 260 (Volvo 262C, 264, 265)
Volvo 340 (Volvo 343, 345)
Volvo 360
Volvo 440
Volvo 460
Volvo 480
Volvo 740
Volvo 760
Volvo 780
Volvo 850
Volvo 940
Volvo 960

Current Volvo models

Today, the company uses a system of letters denoting body style followed by the series number. S stands for saloon or sedan, C stands for coupe or convertible and V stands for versatile as in estate car. XC stands for cross country originally added to a more rugged V70 model as the V70XC and indicates all wheel drive paired with a raised suspension to give it a mock SUV look. Volvo would later change the name to the XC70 in keeping with its car naming consistent with the XC90. So a V50 is an estate ("V") that is smaller than the V70.

Originally, Volvo was planning a different naming scheme. S and C were to be the same, but "F", standing for flexibility, was to be used on station wagons. When Volvo introduced the first generation S40 and V40 at Frankfurt in 1994, they were announced as the S4 and F4. However, Audi complained that it had inherent rights to the S4 name, since it names its sporty vehicles "S", and the yet-introduced sport version of the Audi A4 would have the S4 name. Volvo agreed to add a second digit, so the vehicles became the S40 and F40. However, that led to a complaint from Ferrari, who used the Ferrari F40 name on their legendary sports car. This led to Volvo switching the "F" to "V", for versatile.
1998 Volvo V70 wagon

Pre-Ford
Volvo S/V40 (M/Y 1996-2004)
Volvo S/V70 (M/Y 1997-2000)
Volvo C70 (M/Y 1997-2005)
S/V90 (M/Y 1991-1998)
Small cars (Volvo P1 platform)
Volvo C30 (M/Y 2007- )
Volvo C70 (M/Y 2005- )
Volvo S40 (M/Y 2004- )
Volvo V50 (M/Y 2004- )
Large cars (Volvo P2 platform)
Volvo S60 (M/Y 2001- )
Volvo S80 (M/Y 1999-2006)
Volvo V70 (M/Y 2000-2007)
Volvo XC70 (M/Y 2001-2007)
Volvo XC90 (M/Y 2003- )
Large Cars (Volvo Y2 platform)
Volvo S80 (M/Y 2007- )
Volvo V70 (M/Y 2008- )
Volvo XC60 (M/Y 2009- )
Volvo XC70 (M/Y 2008- )

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