Volvo
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox company
The Volvo Group (Template:Langx; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation 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 with its subsidiary Volvo Trucks.<ref name="AR2016">Template:Cite web</ref>
Volvo was founded in 1927. Initially involved in the automobile industry, Volvo expanded into other manufacturing sectors throughout the twentieth century. 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 Volvo Cars has been owned by the automotive company Geely Holding Group. Both AB Volvo and Volvo Cars share the Volvo logo and cooperate in running the Volvo Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The corporation was first listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1935, and was listed on the American NASDAQ from 1985 to 2007.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Volvo is one of Sweden's largest companies by market capitalisation and revenue.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
History
[edit]Early years and international expansion
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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.<ref name="B2">Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1924, Assar Gabrielsson, an SKF sales manager, and Gustav Larson, a KTH educated engineer, decided to start construction of a Swedish car. They intended to build cars that could withstand the rigours of the country's rough roads and cold temperatures.<ref name="volvo.com">Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Only 280 cars were built that year.<ref name=georgano>Georgano, G. N. Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886–1930. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985) Template:ISBN</ref> The first truck, the "Series 1", debuted in January 1928, as an immediate success and attracted attention outside the country.<ref name="B2"/> In 1930, Volvo sold 639 cars,<ref name=georgano/> and the export of trucks to Europe started soon after; the cars did not become well known outside Sweden until after World War II.<ref name=georgano/> 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).<ref name="B2"/>
Pentaverken, which had manufactured engines for Volvo, was acquired in 1935, providing a secure supply of engines and entry into the marine engine market.<ref name="PentaHistory">Template:Cite web</ref>
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. Volvo was also responsible for producing the Stridsvagn m/42. 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.<ref name=WG>Template:Cite book</ref> Bolinder-Munktell was renamed as Volvo BM in 1973.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1979, Volvo BM's agricultural equipment business was sold to Valmet.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Later, through restructuring and acquisitions, the remaining construction equipment business became Volvo Construction Equipment.<ref name=WG/>
In the 1970s, Volvo started to move away from car manufacturing to concentrate more on heavy commercial vehicles. The car division focused on models aimed at upper middle-class customers to improve its profitability.<ref name=diver/>
Partnerships and merging attempts
[edit]In 1977, Volvo tried to combine operations with rival Swedish automotive group Saab-Scania, but the latter company rejected it.<ref name="B2"/>
Between 1978<ref name="B2"/> and 1981, Volvo acquired Beijerinvest, a trading company involved in the oil, food, and finance businesses. In 1981, those sectors represented about three quarters of Volvo's revenue, while the automotive sector amounted for most of the rest. In 1982, the company completed the acquisition of White Motor Corporation's assets.<ref name=diver/>
In the early 1970s, French manufacturer Renault and Volvo started to collaborate.<ref name=R1985/> In 1978, Volvo Car Corporation was spun off as a separate company within the Volvo group<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Renault acquired a minority stake,<ref name="B2"/> before selling it back in the 1980s after a restructuring.<ref name=R1985/> 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.<ref name="B2"/><ref name=R1985>Template:Cite journal</ref> The alliance was officially dissolved in February 1994 and Volvo sold off its minority Renault stake in 1997.<ref name="B2"/> In the 1990s, Volvo also divested from most of its activities outside vehicles and engines.<ref name="B2"/>
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.<ref name="awr">Mitsubishi Motors Corporation Vehicle Manufacturer Strategic Insight Template:Webarchive, Automotive World (subscription required)</ref><ref name="nedcar_history">Template:Cite web</ref> During the 1990s, Volvo also partnered with the American manufacturer General Motors. In 1999, the European Union blocked a merger with Scania AB.<ref name="B2"/>
Refocusing on heavy vehicles
[edit]
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.<ref name="EvoC30">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="ScotsmanAM">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="EvoLRFree2">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In November 1999, Volvo Group purchased a 5% stake in Mitsubishi Motors, as part of a partnership deal for the truck and bus business.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2001, after DaimlerChrysler bought a large Mitsubishi Motors stake,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Volvo sold its shares to the former.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref name="VolvoPR2001">Template:Cite web</ref> Renault increased its shareholding to 21.7% by 2010.<ref name="VolvoRenTel2010">Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref name="volvo.com"/><ref name="BBCNissan2007">Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref name="VolvoRenTel2010"/> 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 Template:Ill as the largest shareholder, with 6.2% of the share capital and 18.7% of the voting rights.<ref name="WSJ2012">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="IVG2012">Template:Cite web</ref> That same year, Volvo sold Volvo Aero to the British company GKN.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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%).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In December 2013, Volvo sold its Volvo Construction Equipment Rents division to Platinum Equity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> The project for selling the division was later abandoned and, in May 2018, Volvo reorganized Renault Trucks Defense and renamed it Arquus.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The sale was completed in March 2019.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The "final agreements" for the alliance were signed in October 2020, with UD Trucks sale pending on regulatory clearances.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> The sale was completed in April 2021.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In the early 2020s, Volvo partnered with other manufacturers to deploy infrastructure for non-hydrocarbon energies. In April 2020, Volvo and Daimler (later Daimler Truck) announced that the former planned to acquire half of Daimler's fuel cell business, forming a joint venture between the two companies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In March 2021, the fuel cell business was reorganised as a joint venture called Cellcentric.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In December 2021, Volvo, Daimler Truck, and Traton agreed to the formation of an equally owned joint venture aimed to build an electric vehicle charging network for heavy vehicles in Europe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In December 2022, the joint venture (called Commercial Vehicle Charging Europe) began operations under the trade name Milence.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In April 2021, Volvo announced that it had signed up a new partnership with steel manufacturer SSAB to develop fossil fuel-free steel for future use in Volvo's vehicles.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The partnership is derived from SSAB's own green steel venture, HYBRIT.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In November 2023, Volvo acquired Proterra's battery business for US$210 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Volvo has announced that it is developing trucks with combustion engines that run on hydrogen. Commercial tests will begin in early 2026.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Corporate
[edit]Business
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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)
- Arquus (military vehicles)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles (45%) (trucks)
- VE Commercial Vehicles Limited 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 Group Venture Capital (corporate investment company)
- 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)
- Volvo Energy (management and support for electric vehicles, batteries and electrification networks)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
According to the company, in 2021 almost two thirds (62%) of its revenue came from trucks and services related to them. Second came construction equipment (25%), and the rest was from buses, marine engines, and minor operations, each of them below 5%.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Production facilities
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Volvo has various production facilities. Template:As of, it has plants in 19 countries, with 10 other countries having independent assemblers of Volvo products. The company also has product development, distribution, and logistics centers.<ref name=facil1>Template:Cite web</ref> Its first plant for vehicle assembly, on the Hisingen island, was owned by SKF until it was made part of the Volvo company in 1930.<ref name="B2"/> That year, Volvo acquired its supplier of engines in Skövde (Pentavarken).<ref name=restr>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1942, Volvo acquired its supplier of transmissions, Köpings Mekaniska Verkstad,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> located in the town of Köping. In 1954, Volvo built a new truck assembly plant in Gothenburg and, in 1959–<ref name="B2"/> 1964,<ref name=ake>Template:Cite book</ref> a car assembly plant in Torslanda.<ref name="B2"/> The first truly branched away plant of Volvo was the Floby gearbox plant (100 kilometers to the northeast of Gothenburg), incorporated in 1958. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Volvo and its assembly partners opened plants in Canada, Belgium, Malaysia,<ref name=restr/> and Australia.<ref name=Brisbane>Template:Cite web</ref> In the early part of that period Volvo also started to venture into vehicles other than passenger cars and road-going commercial vehicles by acquiring the Eskilstuna plant (Bolinder-Munktell).<ref name=restr/> From the 1970s onwards, Volvo set up various facilities (Bengtsfors, Lindesberg, Vara, Tanumshede, Färgelanda,<ref name=restr/> Borås<ref name=Boras>Template:Cite web</ref>), most of them within a 150 kilometer radius of Gothenburg,<ref name=restr/> and gradually acquired the Dutch DAF car plants.<ref name="B2"/> It also established its first South American plant in Curitiba, Brazil.<ref name=braz>Template:Cite book</ref>
From the mid-1970s onwards, Volvo began building assembly plants with smaller assembly lines, more worker-centric and with better use of automation, leaving Fordism. These were Kalmar (car assembly, built in 1974),<ref name=ake/> Tuve (truck assembly, 1982)<ref name=ake/><ref name=alt>Template:Cite book</ref> and Uddevalla (car assembly, 1989). Kalmar and Uddevalla were closed down in the early 1990s, following yearly losses.<ref name=ake/> The Tuve plant (called the LB plant) replaced the Gothenburg plant (X plant) for truck assembly through the 1980s, as the former could produce more technologically complex models.<ref name=alt/> In 1982, Volvo gained its first plant in the United States, the New River Valley plant in Dublin, Virginia, after acquiring the assets of the White Motor Corporation.<ref name=diver>Template:Cite web</ref> Starting in the late 1980s, Volvo expanded its limited bus production capabilities through acquisitions in various countries (Swedish Saffle Karroseri, Danish Aabenraa, German Drögmöller Karroserien, Canadian Prévost Car, Finnish Carrus, American Nova Bus, Mexican Mexicana de Autobuses). In the late 1990s, after a short-lived joint venture with Polish manufacturer Jelcz, Volvo built its main bus production hub for Europe in Wrocław.<ref name=braz/> In the 1990s, Volvo also increased its construction equipment assets by acquiring the Swedish company Åkerman and the construction equipment division of Samsung Heavy Industries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1998, the company opened an assembly facility for its three main heavy product lines (trucks, construction equipment, and buses) near Bengaluru, India.<ref name=braz/>
Volvo sold all its car manufacturing assets in 1999.<ref name=braz/>
Following the acquisition of Renault Véhicules Industriels<ref name=braz/> and Nissan Diesel<ref name=ft>Template:Cite web</ref> in the 2000s, Volvo gained various production facilities in Europe, North America, and Asia.<ref name=braz/><ref name=ft/>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Trademark
[edit]Volvo Trademark Holding AB is equally owned by AB Volvo and Volvo Car Corporation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The main activity of the company is to own, maintain, protect and preserve the Volvo trademarks, including Volvo, the Volvo branding symbols (grille slash and iron mark), 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Collaboration with universities and colleges
[edit]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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Communication campaigns
[edit]In November 2013, Volvo Trucks enlisted Jean-Claude Van Damme to perform a split between two moving trucks in reverse. The goal of this campaign, titled "Epic Split," was to demonstrate the stability and precision of their "Dynamic Steering" model.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In just three weeks, the video went viral, garnering over 61 million views on YouTube.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Two years after the "Epic Split", Volvo Trucks aimed to demonstrate the durability of one of their trucks by handing over the controls to a four-year-old girl named Sophie. Conceptualized by the Swedish agency Forsman and Bodenfors, the widely shared video clip features Sophie using a remote control to navigate the truck through various obstacles, showcasing the vehicle's robustness and precision.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]References
[edit]External links
[edit]- Template:Official website
- Template:Official website – for Volvo-branded companies.
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- Truck manufacturers of Sweden
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- Multinational companies headquartered in Sweden
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