Volvo

Volvo is a Swedish automobile manufacturer. Since 2010, its car division (Volvo Cars) has been owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group of China. Prior to that, it was part of AB Volvo until 1999, when Ford Motor Company acquired the car division.

Volvo was founded in 1927 in Gothenburg, Sweden, by Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson, with a guiding ethos of durability, quality and, above all, safety. The Volvo name, derived from the Latin “I roll”, was originally registered on 11 May 1915 by SKF, a bearing-manufacturing company, before being repurposed for automobiles. The first Volvo car, the OV4, also known as “Jakob”, rolled off the production line on 14 April 1927.

Volvo’s reputation for safety is central to its identity. In 1959, Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin introduced and patented the modern three-point seatbelt, which Volvo made standard in its cars and then offered royalty-free to other manufacturers. The company also pioneered laminated glass in passenger windows and has since introduced numerous innovations such as rear-facing child seats, booster cushions, and advanced occupant protection systems, reinforcing its long-standing motto that safety is in its DNA.

In recent years, Volvo Cars has strengthened its operations in China by taking full ownership of its manufacturing and sales activities there. It continues to operate with substantial autonomy within the Geely group and became a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange in 2021.

For more information about the Volvo Car Range, please visit their website: Volvo Car Range