Volvo

The Volvo Group (Swedish:

Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget
Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as
VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational
manufacturing company headquartered in
Gothenburg. While its core activity is the
production, distribution and sale of trucks,
buses and construction equipment, Volvo
also supplies marine and industrial drive
systems and financial services. In 2016, it
was the world's second largest
manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks.[2]
 AB Volvo (Volvo Group)

Type Publicly traded

Aktiebolag
Traded as Nasdaq
Stockholm: VOLV B
ISIN SE0000115420 

Industry Automotive

Founded 1927

Founders Assar Gabrielsson

and Gustav Larson
Headquarters Gothenburg, Sweden

Area served Worldwide

Key people Carl-Henric Svanberg
(Chairman)
Martin Lundstedt
(President and CEO)
Products Trucks, buses,
construction
equipment, marine
and industrial
engines, financial
services, product
related services
Revenue 431.980 billion kr
(2019)[1]
Operating income 49.531 billion kr
(2019)[1]
Net income 36.495 billion kr
(2019)[1]
Total assets 524.837 billion kr
(2019)[1]
Total equity 141.678 billion kr
(2019)[1]
Number of 103,985 (2019)[1]
employees
Subsidiaries Volvo Trucks
Mack Trucks
Renault Trucks
UD Trucks
Volvo Construction
Equipment
Volvo Buses
Volvo Penta
Arquus
Volvo Financial
Services
Website www.volvogroup
.com

Automobile manufacturer Volvo Cars, also

based in Gothenburg, was part of AB Volvo
until 1999, when it was sold to the Ford
Motor Company. Since 2010 it has been
owned by the Chinese multinational
automotive company Geely Holding Group.
Both AB Volvo and Volvo Cars share the
Volvo logo and cooperate in running the
Volvo Museum in Sweden.

The company was first listed on the

Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1935, and
was on the NASDAQ indices from 1985 to
2007.[3]

Volvo was established in 1915 as a

subsidiary of SKF, a ball bearing
manufacturer; however both the Volvo
Group and Volvo Cars regard the rollout of
the company's first car series, the Volvo
ÖV 4, on 14 April 1927, as their
beginning.[4] The building remains
(57°42′50″N 11°55′19″E).

History

Early years and international

expansion
…

The first Volvo car, a Volvo ÖV 4, left the assembly line

on 14 April 1927

The brand name Volvo was originally

registered as a trademark in May 1911
with the intention to be used for a new
series of SKF ball bearings. It means "I roll"
in Latin, conjugated from "volvere". The
idea was short-lived, and SKF decided to
simply use its initials as the trademark for
all its bearing products.[5]

In 1924, Assar Gabrielsson, an SKF sales

manager, and a KTH Royal Institute of
Technology educated engineer Gustav
Larson, decided to start construction of a
Swedish car. They intended to build cars
that could withstand the rigors of the
country's rough roads and cold
temperatures.[6]
AB Volvo began activities on 10 August
1926. After one year of preparations
involving the production of ten prototypes,
the firm was ready to commence the car-
manufacturing business within the SKF
group. The Volvo Group itself considers it
started in 1927, when the first car, a Volvo
ÖV 4, rolled off the production line at the
factory in Hisingen, Gothenburg.[7] Only
280 cars were built that year.[8] The first
truck, the "Series 1", debuted in January
1928, as an immediate success and
attracted attention outside the country.[5]
In 1930, Volvo sold 639 cars,[8] and the
export of trucks to Europe started soon
after; the cars did not become well known
outside Sweden until after World War II.[8]
AB Volvo was introduced at the Stockholm
Stock Exchange in 1935 and SKF then
decided to sell its shares in the company.
By 1942, Volvo acquired the Swedish
precision engineering company Svenska
Flygmotor (later renamed as Volvo
Aero).[5]

Pentaverken, which had manufactured

engines for Volvo, was acquired in 1935,
providing a secure supply of engines and
entry into the marine engine market.[9]

The first bus, named B1, was launched in

1934, and aircraft engines were added to
the growing range of products at the
beginning of the 1940s. In 1963, Volvo
opened the Volvo Halifax Assembly plant,
the first assembly plant in the company's
history outside of Sweden in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada.

In 1950, Volvo acquired the Swedish

construction and agricultural equipment
manufacturer Bolinder-Munktell.[10]
Bolinder-Munktell was renamed as Volvo
BM in 1973.[11] In 1979, Volvo BM's
agricultural equipment business was sold
to Valmet.[12] Later, through restructuring
and acquisitions, the remaining
construction equipment business became
Volvo Construction Equipment.[10]

Partnerships and merging attempts …

In 1977, Volvo tried to combine operations

with rival Swedish automotive group Saab-
Scania, but the latter company rejected
it.[5] In the 1970s, French manufacturer
Renault and Volvo started to
collaborate.[13] In 1978, Volvo Car
Corporation was spun off as a separate
company within the Volvo group[14] and
Renault acquired a minority stake,[5] before
selling it back in the 1980s after a
restructuring.[13] In the 1990s, Renault and
Volvo deepened their collaboration and
both companies partnered in purchasing,
research and development and quality
control while increasing their cross-
ownership. Renault would assist Volvo
with entry-level and medium segment
vehicles and in return Volvo would share
technology with Renault in upper
segments. In 1993, a 1994 Volvo-Renault
merger deal was announced. The deal was
barely accepted in France, but it was
opposed in Sweden, and the Volvo
shareholders and company board voted
against it.[5][13] The alliance was officially
dissolved in February 1994 and Volvo sold
off its minority Renault stake in 1997.[5]
In 1991, the Volvo Group participated in a
joint venture with Japanese automaker
Mitsubishi Motors at the former DAF plant
in Born, Netherlands. The operation,
branded NedCar, began producing the first
generation Mitsubishi Carisma alongside
the Volvo S40/V40 in 1996.[15][16] During
the 1990s, Volvo also partnered with the
American manufacturer General Motors. In
1999, the European Union blocked a
merger with Scania AB.[5]

Refocusing on heavy vehicles …

Volvo excavator on construction site in Tomaszów

Mazowiecki, Poland

In January 1999, Volvo Group sold Volvo

Car Corporation to Ford Motor Company
for $6.45 billion. The division was placed
within Ford's Premier Automotive Group
alongside Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston
Martin. Volvo engineering resources and
components would be used in various
Ford, Land Rover and Aston Martin
products, with the second generation Land
Rover Freelander designed on the same
platform as the second generation Volvo
S80. The Volvo T5 petrol engine was used
in the Ford Focus ST and RS performance
models, and Volvo's satellite navigation
system was used on certain Aston Martin
Vanquish, DB9 and V8 Vantage
models.[17][18][19] In November 1999, Volvo
Group purchased a 5% stake in Mitsubishi
Motors, as part of a partnership deal for
the truck and bus business.[20] In 2001,
after DaimlerChrysler bought a large
Mitsubishi Motors stake,[21] Volvo sold its
shares to the former.[22]

Renault Véhicules Industriels (which

included Mack Trucks, but not Renault's
stake in Irisbus) was sold to Volvo during
January 2001, and Volvo renamed it
Renault Trucks in 2002. Renault became
AB Volvo's biggest shareholder with a
19.9% stake (in shares and voting rights)
as part of the deal.[23] Renault increased
its shareholding to 21.7% by 2010.[24]

AB Volvo acquired 13% of the shares in the

Japanese truck manufacturer Nissan
Diesel (later renamed UD Trucks) from
Nissan (part of the Renault-Nissan
Alliance) during 2006, becoming a major
shareholder. Volvo Group took complete
ownership of Nissan Diesel in 2007 to
extend its presence in the Asian Pacific
market.[6][25]

Renault sold 14.9% of their stake in AB

Volvo in October 2010 (comprising 14.9%
of the share capital and 3.8% of the voting
rights) for €3.02 billion. This share sale left
Renault with around 17.5% of Volvo's
voting rights.[24] Renault sold their
remaining shares in December 2012
(comprising 6.5% of the share capital and
17.2% of the voting rights at the time of
transaction) for €1.6 billion, leaving
Swedish industrial investment group
Aktiebolaget Industrivärden as the largest
shareholder, with 6.2% of the share capital
and 18.7% of the voting rights.[26][27] That
same year, Volvo sold Volvo Aero to the
British company GKN.[28] In 2017 Volvo
Cars owner Geely became the largest
Volvo shareholder by number of shares
after acquiring an 8.2% stake, displacing
Industrivärden. Industrivärden kept more
voting rights than Geely (Geely getting a
15.8%).[29]

In December 2013, Volvo sold its Volvo

Construction Equipment Rents division to
Platinum Equity.[30] In 2014, Volvo's Volvo
Construction Equipment acquired the haul
truck manufacturing division of Terex
Corporation, which included five truck
models and a manufacturing facility in
Motherwell, Scotland.[31][32][33] In
November 2016, Volvo announced its
intention of divesting its Government
Sales division, made up mainly of Renault
Trucks' Renault Trucks Defense but also of
Panhard, ACMAT, Mack Defense in the
United States, and Volvo Defense.[34] The
project for selling the division was later
abandoned and, in May 2018, Volvo
reorganized Renault Trucks Defense and
renamed it Arquus.[35]

In December 2018, Volvo announced it

intended to sell a 75.1% controlling stake
of its car telematics subsidiary
WirelessCar to Volkswagen with the aim of
focusing on telematics for commercial
vehicles.[36] The sale was completed in
March 2019.[37]

In December 2019, Volvo and Isuzu

announced their intention of forming a
strategic alliance on commercial vehicles.
As part of the agreement, Volvo would sell
UD Trucks to Isuzu.[38] In April 2020, Volvo
and Daimler announced that the former
planned to acquire half of Daimler's fuel
cell business, forming a joint venture
between the two companies.[39]

Business
Volvo Group's operations include:

Volvo Trucks (midsize-duty trucks for

regional transportation and heavy-duty
trucks for long distance transportation,
as well as heavy-duty trucks for the
construction work segment)
Mack Trucks (light-duty trucks for close
distribution and heavy-duty trucks for
long distance transportation)
Renault Trucks (heavy-duty trucks for
regional transportations and heavy-duty
trucks for the construction work
segment)
UD Trucks (midsize-duty trucks)
Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles (45%)
(trucks)
VE Commercial Vehicles (Eicher) Ltd.,
India (VECV), a joint venture between
Volvo Group and Eicher Motors Limited
in which Volvo holds 45.6% (trucks and
buses)
Volvo Construction Equipment
(construction equipment)
SDLG (70%) (construction equipment)
Volvo Buses (complete buses and bus
chassis for city traffic, line traffic and
tourist traffic)
Volvo Financial Services (customer
financing, inter-group banking, as real
 estate administration)
Volvo Penta (marine engine systems for
leisure boats and commercial shipping,
diesel engines and drive systems for
industrial applications)
Arquus[40]

Trademark
Volvo Trademark Holding AB is equally
owned by AB Volvo and Volvo Car
Corporation.[41]

The main activity of the company is to

own, maintain, protect and preserve the
Volvo trademarks (including Volvo, the
Volvo device marks (grille slash & iron
mark) Volvo Aero and Volvo Penta) on
behalf of its owners and to license these
rights to its owners. The day-to-day work is
focused upon maintaining the global
portfolio of trademark registrations and to
extend sufficiently the scope of the
registered protection for the Volvo
trademarks.

The main business is also to act against

unauthorised registration and use
(including counterfeiting) of trademarks
identical or similar to the Volvo
trademarks on a global basis.[42]

Collaboration with
universities and colleges
Volvo has a strategic collaboration within
research and recruitment with a number of
selected colleges and universities such as
Penn State University, INSA Lyon, EMLYON 
Business School, NC State University,
Sophia University, Chalmers University of
Technology, The Gothenburg School of
Business, Economics and Law at the
University of Gothenburg, Mälardalen
University College, and the University of
Skövde.[43]

See also
Port of Gothenburg
References
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 Retrieved 11 June 2019.

External links
Official Volvo Group website
Official Volvo website – for Volvo-
branded companies.

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