Five things you need to know about Volvo

Tuesday, 9 January 2018

Well, hello there. Roger Moore helped make Volvo cool with his P1800 in the The Saint television series.

Under the ownership of Chinese company Geeley Automobile, Volvo has had an impressive resurgence in recent years and now produces some truly excellent cars.

But it has been an interesting and sometimes-strange journey. Today we take a look at Volvo from five different angles.

Geeley, maker of the Panda small-car, has owned Volvo since 2009.

The name

Volvo means 'I roll' in latin and was registered in 1915 by Swedish bearing manufacturer SKF: Svenska Kullagerfabriken AB, or 'Swedish Ball Bearing Factory' in English. Very literal people, the Swedes.

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The name was intended to go on the company's new range of ball bearings, but its direction quickly changed and it just went with SKF instead. Around 10 years later, when SKF decided to start building cars, the Volvo name was used. The idea to build a car arose in 1924 and by 1927 the first Volvo had rolled off the production line.

First car

Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin pioneered the three-point seatbelt design for launch in 1959.

Volvo's first-ever car was the OV 4, which stood for 'Oppen Vagn 4 cylindrar', or 'Open carriage 4 cylinder' in English. Wait, we hear you say, isn't Sweden rather cold and snowy? Why make an open car?

Yeah, well, it seems the company people didn't really think of that themselves; the OV 4 was not popular at all in Sweden and Volvo eventually introduced a closed version, the PV 4, a year before production finished in 1929 with just 996 cars built. The inauspicious start wasn't helped by the fact that the first car to be driven out of the factory went backwards when it was in first gear, due to an incorrectly fitted differential in the rear axle.

Getting famous

Volvo became more widely known outside of Sweden following World War II, but arguably the car that did the most for Volvo's profile around the world - particularly in the US - was the gorgeous P1800 coupe that was launched in 1961 (and the ridiculously cool shooting brake version that arrived in 1972).

Apart from the fact that it was a very attractive car, the P1800's big break came when it was driven by Roger Moore in the popular TV series The Saint. But it isn't all just glamour that the P1800 is famous for - one particular example owned by retired US teacher Irvin Gordon holds the record for the highest-mileage car driven by its original owner - more than five million kilometres so far.

Safety

Volvo is also famous for its safety. It has introduced more than its fair share of safety equipment that we take for granted today. The most obvious life-saver is the modern three-point safety belt, which Volvo was the first to introduce in 1959. While seatbelts had been around (Nash and Ford offered them in 1949 and 1955 respectively, and Saab introduced them as standard in 1958), Volvo's three-point system was far more effective.

Developed by Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin, the three-point system was proven to be effective after a study of 28,000 crashes that showed no belted occupants were fatally injured at speeds below 60mph (96.5km/h).

Ownership

Volvo was floated on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1935, with SKF selling all of its shares in the company at that time. Things went well for Volvo, with the company acquiring various companies and expanding into aerospace, marine and construction equipment. By 1978 the Volvo Car Corporation was spun off as a separate company from rest of the group and begun a collaboration with Renault. The two companies tried to merge in 1994, but it was blocked by Volvo's investors.

By 1999 the company had been sold to Ford, which fumbled along with it until 2009 when it was again sold, this time to the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, the owner of China's Geely Automobile.