Volvo celebrates a roaring 85 years
From selling a modest 300 cars in 1927, firm now sells almost 500,000 cars a year
On April 14, 1927, Volvo’s first mass-produced car rolled off the production line at the Lundby factory in Gothenburg, Sweden. Now, 85 years later, Volvo Group is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial vehicles and Volvo Car Corporation sells almost 500,000 cars each year.
At 10am on April 14, 1927, sales manager Hilmer Johansson drove the first mass-produced car – the ÖV4 model (ÖV = Öppen Vagn or ‘Open Vehicle’ and 4 = four cylinders) – through the factory gates in Lundby. Eighty-five years later, the same model will pass through exactly the same gates to celebrate Volvo’s birthday. President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation Stefan Jacoby and President and CEO of Volvo Group Olof Persson will be behind the wheel.
“It’s a fantastic car, but it’s easy to see how much has changed over the last 85 years,” says Jacoby, who recently premiered the new V40 at the Geneva Motor Show.
Volvo Group and Volvo Car Corporation are two companies with a long shared history. However, what was at that time one company began as a very unpromising project, because Volvo’s founders Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson had no direct experience in cars or the automotive industry.
During its first year of production, Volvo sold a very modest 300 cars. However, in the following year business really began to take off when the company also started manufacturing trucks and buses. Even back then Volvo realised that the key to success lay in exports.
“Our roots are still very important to us. Around 30,000 of Volvo Group’s 120,000 employees work in Sweden, but 95 per cent of our products are sold outside the country,” says Olof Persson.
The equivalent figures for Volvo Car Corporation are 14,500 employees in Sweden out of a worldwide total of 21,500. Around 87 per cent of all Volvo Car’s sales come from outside Sweden.
In 1999, Volvo Group sold its car business and since then the two companies have continued to grow in different directions.
Volvo Car Corporation is now in the premium segment and last year sold around 450,000 cars in 120 countries, with the United States being its single largest market.
Volvo Group produces trucks under the Volvo, Renault Trucks, Mack and UD Trucks brands, together with buses, construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications and components for aircraft engines. With a turnover of 310 billion Swedish kroner (Bt1.4 trillion), Volvo Group is the world’s second largest manufacturer of heavy trucks and Sweden’s largest company. The group has production sites in 20 countries and sales organisations in 190.
