Volvo Cars is a Swedish manufacturer of premium and luxury automobiles, founded in 1927 . Its headquarters are in Gothenburg , Sweden . In 2016 , 61.4% of Volvo’s 31,000 employees were still based in Sweden 1 .
Originally owned by the Swedish conglomerate automobile, truck and construction machinery AB Volvo , the automotive operations of public AB Volvo , Volvo Cars under the name belong since 2010 to Chinese automaker Geely , having belonged to the Ford group for eleven years.
Volvo Cars has for the first time in its history exceeded half a million cars sold in 2015 2 .
History
In the automotive industry, developments followed one another rapidly in the 1920s. Assar Gabrielsson, Sales Manager at Svenska Kullager Fabriken ( SKF ), was planning to open a plant to accommodate the production of automobiles for which SKF would supply of bearings ball and roller ball joints. He contacted the designer Gustaf Larsson, who began designing a car.
The plans were completed in the spring of 1925 , with Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larsson producing ten cars. Once these specimens were prepared, it was decided in 1926 that Volvo, SKF’s subsidiary, would continue car production. This company previously manufactured a type of one-row ball bearing called “Volvo” (derived from Latin, meaning “I roll”) – a name that was perfectly suited to new products.
The mass production of the ÖV4 “Jakob” convertible model was inaugurated in 1927 . Later, a sedan version was added to the lineup, helping to boost vehicle sales, but the company only became viable in 1930 . Since that time, Volvo has experienced a dynamic evolution, becoming the largest company in Scandinavia .
1999: Volvo in the Ford group
In 1999 , Volvo AB sold its automobile branch to the Ford group for $ 6.5 billion.
The 1 st October 2005, Frederik Arp became head of Volvo Car Corporation , Volvo today, succeeding Hans Olov Oslon . The company sold in 2005 just under 500,000 cars. The goal of the new CEO is to sell at least 600,000. The same year, the company became the only profitable high-end brand of the Ford group . In 2008, Frederick Arp is replaced by Stephen Odell. In the Ford Group since 1980, he has held various management positions in sales and marketing, including Jaguar and Mazda.
2010: Purchase by Geely
Volvo’s sale to China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group was announced in December 2009 3 and signed at Volvo’s Swedish headquarters on March 28, 2010 by Lewis Booth, Chief Financial Officer of the Ford Group, and Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely.
The amount of the transaction is $ 1.8 billion (€ 1.26 billion) 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 .
In May 2013, Volvo rolled out the first model of its new family of high-performance 4-cylinder engines. The first engine models equip the Volvo S60s, V60s, XC60s, V70s, XC70s and S80s in September 2013 8 .
In July 2015, Volvo buys the Polestar picker, which becomes Volvo’s official performance division.
2017: Transition to electric cars
In July 2017, Volvo announced that in 2019 it plans to stop production of cars with 100% thermal engines – this is the first automaker to do this. 9 After 2019, all Volvo cars will have an electric motor
Production sites
The Volvo Cars Group produces its automobiles at four main locations in Gothenburg , Sweden, Ghent , Belgium, Chongqing and Chengdu , China. Malaysia also hosts an assembly plant in Kuala Lumpur . Some elements are produced separately, in Sweden in particular, such as engines at Skövde since 1930 , mechanical components at Floby since 1957 or bodywork elements at Olofström since 1969 .
The design is studied in four laboratories; that of Gothenburg in Sweden, Barcelona in Spain, Camarillo in the United States and Shanghai for China.
Current models
With the S designation for 4-door cars, ie hatchback sedans (Sedan), V for 5-door cars ie compact cars and station wagons (Versatility), XC for SUV (Cross Country) and C (Coupé or Convertible) for 3-door cars (none in the range since 2014).
