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Volvo

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Volvo Cars is the car maker using the brand Volvo.
Voldo is the strapped and masked Soul Calibur fighter.

AB Volvo (or Aktiebolaget Volvo) is a world-leading Swedish manufacturer of commercial vehicles, buses and construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications, aerospace components and services. The automaker was founded August 10, 1926 in the city of Gothenburg, as a spin-off from roller ball bearing maker SKF (Svenska Kullagerfabriken AB). Volvo Cars, the automobile manufacturer, has been owned by the Ford Motor Company since 1999.

Volvo is Latin for "I roll" or "I turn." 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. The company Volvo AB had no activities until the 10 August 1926 when the SKF Sales Manager Assar Gabrielsson and Engineer Gustav Larson, after one year of preparations involving the production of 10 prototypes, set up the car-manufacturing business Volvo AB within SKF group. Volvo AB was introduced at the Stockholm stock exchange in 1935 and SKF then decided to sell its shares in the company.

The first series produced Volvo automobile, called 'ÖV4' (Öppen vagn (Open wagon)-4 cylinders) left the factory on 14 April 1927. Just 996 cars were produced between 1927-1929. 'ÖV4' was replaced by model PV651 in April 1929. Volvo's first success in the automobile production came with the PV444 that was introduced in september 1944.

The Volvo Group today has more than 81,000 employees, with manufacturing in 25 countries and sales in more than 185 markets. The group provides complete solutions for financing and service. The Volvo Group's net sales 2004 amounted to €22 billion. Renault owns 20% of the Volvo Group.

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Change of strategy

Among the reasons why Volvo took the initiative to sell the automobile manufacturing was the increasing development costs for new car models, coupled with the fact that it was a relatively small producer. The strategy was instead to grow as a truck manufacturer where it had a stronger market position. The buyout of Volvo Cars was announced on January 28, 1998. In the following year acquisition was completed at a price of $6.45 billion USD. Volvo used the funds from the sale of the automobile division to finance the purchase of Scania, another leading Swedish truck manufacturer, but the deal was stopped for competition reasons by the European Union. Instead Volvo acquired the commercial vehicles division of French Renault and the American truck manufacturer Mack Trucks.

Volvo Automotive's motto is "Volvo for life" attributed to the reliability and safety of their cars.

Volvo means "I roll" in Latin. Combined with their company symbol, (commonly mistaken for the male symbol) which actually stands for iron ore, stands for "Rolling Strength"

Volvo has invented many safety features now standard on passenger cars such as:
1944 Safety cage
1944 Laminated windscreen
1959 Three-point safety belts in the front
1960 Padded dashboard
1964 Prototype of the first rear-facing child seat
1966 Energy-absorbent crumple zones at both front and rear
1967 Rear safety belts
1968 Head restraints in the front
1969 Three-point, inertia-reel safety belts in the front
1970 Establishment of the Volvo Accident Research Team
1972 Three-point safety belts in the rear
1972 Rear-facing child seat and childproof locks in the rear
1973 Collapsible steering column
1974 Energy-absorbent bumpers
1974 Fuel tank located ahead of rear axle
1978 Child booster seat
1982 Anti-submarining protection in the front and rear seats
1982 Wide-angle door mirrors
1984 Anti-lock braking system
1986 High-level brake light
1986 Three-point safety belt in the centre rear seat
1987 Driver airbag
1990 Integrated child booster seat
1991 SIPS (Side-Impact Protection System)
1991 Automatic height adjustment of the front safety belts
1993 Three-point, inertia-reel safety belts standard in all seats
1994 Side airbags
1997 Rollover Protection System (convertible models)
1998 Whiplash Protection System
1998 Inflatable curtain
2000 Volvo Cars Safety Centre in Gothenburg
2000 ISOFIX attachment system for all child seats
2000 Dual-stage inflation airbags
2001 Volvo Safety Concept Car
2002 Extended rollover protection system
2002 Development of the virtual pregnant crash test dummy
2002 Roll Stability Control
2003 Intelligent Driver Information System
2003 Rear seat belt reminders
2003 New, patented, front-end structure reduces collision forces
2003 Volvo's Traffic Accident Research Team in Bangkok 2004 Water Repellent Glass 2005 Door Mounted Inflatable Curtain

The Volvo trademark

The Volvo trademark is now jointly owned (50/50) by Volvo and Ford. One of the main promotional activities for the trademark is the sailing contest Volvo Ocean Race, formerly the Whitbread Around the World Cup. There is also a Volvo Baltic Race.

Volvo companies

The (ex-China Motor Bus, Hong Kong) Volvo Heavy Duty Recovery.
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The (ex-China Motor Bus, Hong Kong) Volvo Heavy Duty Recovery.

Business areas

The Volvo Group is organised into the following business areas:

Business units

The group business areas are supported by a number of business units:

See also

External links

Company websites

Company data

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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