Portal:Volvo
Portal maintenance status: (October 2018)
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Introduction
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.
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 Geely Holding Group, a Chinese multinational automotive manufacturing company. Both AB Volvo and Volvo Cars share the Volvo logo and cooperate in running the Volvo Museum in Sweden.
Selected general articles
- The Volvo PV is a series of two-door, four-passenger car models — the PV444 and the PV544 — made by Volvo from 1947 to 1966. During World War II's early stages, Volvo decided that a new, smaller car that could deliver good fuel economy would assure the company's future. A raw materials shortage during the war drove home the point that an automobile should be smaller, and also complicated Volvo's ability to mass-produce the product. In 1944, when the car was finally introduced to a car-hungry public, response was very positive and orders poured in from the Swedish population. It was another three years though, until 1947, before series production began.
The PV quickly earned a reputation for being strong and rugged, although the design was considered outdated from early on. The PV also competed successfully, in the American SCCA class but also internationally, with a second-hand PV544 memorably winning the Safari Rally in 1965. Read more...
The Duett is an automobile from Volvo that was in production from 1953 to 1969.
The name Duett was intended to signify a car that could be used as a delivery vehicle during the week and as a comfortable sedan away from work. Read more...
The Ford C1 platform (for "compact class") is Ford's global compact car automobile platform. It replaces Ford C170 platform and Mazda's BJ platform. The C1 platform debuted with the European Ford Focus C-Max compact MPV in early 2004. The platform is designed for either front- or all wheel drive.
The C platform was designed in the Ford development center at Europe Cologne, Germany, as the "C Technologies Program". It was said to be one of the largest platform programs in history at that time. The Ford Focus, Volvo S40 and V50, and Mazda3 (BK & BL) share about 60 percent of their parts and components. Thirty engineers each from Ford, Mazda, and Volvo worked in Cologne for two years to combine the compact car engineering for all three automakers under the direction of Ford Director of C Technologies Derrick Kuzak, Ford of Europe vice president of product development. Read more...
The Volvo S60 is a compact luxury sedan manufactured and marketed by Volvo since 2000 and is now in its third generation.
The first generation (2000–2009) was launched in autumn of 2000 in order to replace the S70 and was based on the P2 platform. It had a similar designed estate version called Volvo V70 and a sports version called S60 R. Styling clues were taken from the ECC concept car and the S80. Read more...
Polestar is the Volvo Cars performance company and brand, based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Polestar develops electric performance cars, high-performance cars based on Volvos and offers technical and cosmetic upgrades to enhance Volvo models. Until 2015, Polestar Performance was a division of Polestar along with the Polestar racing team. and prototypes. Volvo announced in July 2015 that it had purchased Polestar Performance. The racing team will remain under the direction of Christian Dahl, changing name from Polestar Racing to Cyan Racing. A close cooperation with Polestar is maintained with Cyan Racing becoming official motorsport partner to Polestar, the Volvo Cars performance brand.
In June 2017, Volvo announced Polestar would begin producing high-end electric performance cars under its own name and badge, to compete with brands like Tesla Motors. Read more...
Volvo Cars (Swedish: Volvo personvagnar), stylized as VOLVO in the logo, is a Chinese-owned, Swedish luxury vehicles company . It is headquartered on Torslanda in Gothenburg and is a subsidiary of Chinese automotive company Geely. The company manufactures and markets sport utility vehicles, station wagons, sedans and compact executive sedans.
The Volvo Group was founded in 1927 as a subsidiary of the ball bearing manufacturer SKF. When AB Volvo was introduced on the Stockholm stock exchange in 1935, SKF sold most of the shares in the company. Read more...
The Volvo Amazon was a mid-size car manufactured and marketed by Volvo Cars from 1956 to 1970 and introduced in the USA as the 122S at the New York International Auto Show in April 1959.
The Amazon shared the wheelbase, tall posture and high H-point seating of its predecessor, the PV and was offered in two-door sedan, four-door sedan, and five-door wagon body styles. In 1959 Volvo became the world's first manufacturer to provide front seat belts as standard equipment — by providing them on all Amazon models, including the export models — and later becoming the first car featuring three-point seat belts as standard equipment. Read more...- The Volvo P80 platform was a Swedish mid-size unibody automobile platform developed and produced by Volvo Cars. It was in use from 1991 to 2005. It is designed for different wheelbases in front-wheel drive configurations and was adapted to all wheel drive. It debuted with the 1991 Volvo 850 and again in autumn 1996 with the Volvo 850 AWD. Although heavily modified by TWR, the same basic chassis was used as the underpinnings for the C70. After the model year 2000 most P80 models were replaced by their P2 successors, with the exception of the C70 convertible which remained in production until 2005. A total of 1,360,522 cars based on this platform were built.
The platform utilises a front engine transaxle design with engines and gearboxes mounted transversly on a subframe. Only straight 5 engines were offered. A front subframe and front MacPherson struts were used and either Volvo's patented Deltalink rear axle on FWD models or Volvo's Multi-Link rear suspension with an independent rear subframe on AWD models. Read more... - Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS) is a system to protect against automotive whiplash injuries introduced by Volvo in 1998. It was launched when the Volvo S80 was released for the 1999 model year and has since been part of the standard equipment of all new Volvo cars. Read more...
- The Volvo P2 platform is a global full-size unibody automobile platform developed and produced by Volvo. It is designed for single wheelbases and is adaptable to front- or all wheel drive configurations. It was developed by the automaker before its 1999 acquisition by Ford Motor Company, and debuted with the 1998 Volvo S80.
The platform was in use from 1998 and was slowly phased out beginning in 2006. The first generation XC90 remained in production until 2014 at which point it was the only model still in production based on this platform. For the Chinese market a special version of the XC90 called XC Classic was made from 2014 to 2016. After the second generation XC90 had been launched in all markets the platform was retired. Read more... - Volvo Cars has a long reputation as a maker of inline (or straight) engines. This list of Volvo engines gives an overview of available internal combustion engines.
When Volvo started in 1927, they ordered their engines from the engine manufacturer Penta in Skövde. The first engine was the inline four-cylinder side-valve 28 horsepower (21 kW; 28 PS) Type DA. In 1931, Volvo acquired a majority of the Penta stock, and in 1935, Penta became a subsidiary of Volvo. For the engines used by Volvo Trucks, see List of Volvo Trucks engines. Read more...
The Volvo Concept You is a concept car first revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2011. The Concept You is an executive car with a 4-door fastback saloon-like styling and is a further development of the Volvo Concept Universe which was revealed earlier the same year. The design builds upon Scandinavian Design. Volvo has interpreted this to design the car around the driver and passengers in the car, hence the name You. This includes, for example, that all buttons and knobs have been removed and replaced by easy-to-use touch-screen to control the features of the car. The exterior design is inspired by the classical Volvo models PV544 and the Amazon. Read more...
The Volvo ReCharge is a plug-in hybrid concept car created by Volvo. The vehicle is designed to run purely on electricity from on-board batteries for up to 62 miles (100 km) —which is a large enough distance to cover the daily commutes of most Americans, which is around 25 miles (40 km). With use of a small flex-fuel internal combustion engine hooked to a generator to recharge the batteries, the vehicle's range is increased.
The car is unique in that it uses Hi-Pa Drive wheel motors without any gears, the motors are directly connected to the wheels (wheel motors). This effectively means there will be no transmission or gear lever in the ReCharge. The removal of any transmission gears is expected to increase efficiency by 10 to 20 percent. This direct connection will require software to ensure that the motors act exactly in sync. Read more...
The Volvo S60 is a compact luxury sedan manufactured and marketed by Volvo since 2000 and is now in its third generation.
The first generation (2000–2009) was launched in autumn of 2000 in order to replace the S70 and was based on the P2 platform. It had a similar designed estate version called Volvo V70 and a sports version called S60 R. Styling clues were taken from the ECC concept car and the S80. Read more...
The Volvo ECC (Environmental Concept Car) was an executive luxury concept car built by Volvo in 1992. It was a design exercise in using recycled material and hybrid technology. It was powered by a hybrid electric and gas turbine engine. Many of its lines and general styling were used as inspiration for the first generation Volvo S80. The ECC set a new design language for future Volvo models from the S80 onwards, the most obvious styling feature being the stepped waistline, which was inspired by the similar feature on the 200 Series, whilst retaining some of the angular elements from the 700/900 ranges.
The Volvo ECC was built on the Volvo P80 platform. In contrast to most production hybrids, which use a gasoline piston engine to provide additional acceleration and to recharge the battery storage, the Volvo ECC used a gas turbine engine to drive the generator for recharging. This type of engine has a higher thermodynamic efficiency than the conventional internal combustion engine with pistons. Also in Volvo's design, the fuel is evaporated and mixed with air before ignition. This provides a very low NOx emission. The driver can also switch between gas turbine electric and hybrid by switches on the dashboard. Read more...
The Ford EUCD platform (for "European D-class") is Ford's global midsize car automobile platform launched in 2006. It is a stretch of the compact Ford/Volvo/Mazda-designed Ford C1 platform. EUCD and C1 share many suspension, brake, and electrical systems.
Originally known as "C1-Plus" due to its similarity, EUCD was chosen by Ford's European operations instead of the Ford CD3 platform due to the large number of components shared with the smaller C1. Another factor was reportedly the inability of the CD3 to accept Volvo's straight-5 engines. Read more...
The Volvo V60 is a five-door wagon produced by Volvo Cars based on the S60 compact executive car. This vehicle was released in 2011 and redesigned for the model year of 2014. It was not sold in North American markets until 2014.
For 2014, a raised variant of the vehicle was released, known as the V60 Cross Country. In the beginning of October 2015, Volvo released the V60 Cross Country around the world. Read more...
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.
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 Geely Holding Group, a Chinese multinational automotive manufacturing company. Both AB Volvo and Volvo Cars share the Volvo logo and cooperate in running the Volvo Museum in Sweden. Read more...
Volvo Trucks (Swedish: Volvo Lastvagnar) (stylized as VOLVO) is a global truck manufacturer based in Gothenburg, Sweden, owned by AB Volvo. In 2016, it was the world’s second largest manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks.
Volvo Group was reorganised on 1 January 2012 and as a part of the process, Volvo Trucks ceased to be a separate company and was instead incorporated into Volvo Group Trucks, with Volvo’s other truck brands, Renault Trucks, Mack Trucks and UD Trucks. Read more...
The Volvo 200 series was a range of mid-size cars produced by Volvo Cars from 1974 to 1993, with more than 2.8 million units sold worldwide. Like the Volvo 140 Series, it was designed by Jan Wilsgaard. It overlapped production of the Volvo 700 Series introduced in 1982. As the 240 remained popular, only the 260 was displaced by the 700 series — which Volvo marketed alongside the 240 for another decade. The 700 series was replaced a year before the 240 was discontinued. Production of the 240 ended on 14 May 1993 after nearly 20 years. Read more...
The Volvo XC40 is a subcompact luxury crossover SUV manufactured by Volvo Cars. It was revealed on 21 September 2017. Orders started in September of 2017 and manufacturing began in November 2017.
The XC40 was named Car of the Year by the magazine What Car? in January 2018, and it was given the European Car of the Year award at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. Read more...
The Volvo C30 is a three-door, front-engine, front-wheel-drive premium compact hatchback, manufactured and marketed by Volvo Cars for model years 2006-2013[citation needed] in a single generation. Powered by inline-four and straight-five engines, the C30 is variant of the Volvo S40/V50/C70 range, sharing the same Ford C1/Volvo P1 platform. Volvo marketed the C30 as a premium hatchback / sports coupe.
The C30's rear styling and frameless glass rear hatch recall Volvo's earlier P1800 ES and Volvo 480. Read more...
The Volvo V70 is an executive car manufactured and marketed by Volvo Cars from 1996 to 2016 across three generations.
The name V70 combines the letter V, standing for versatility, and 70, denoting relative platform size (i.e., a V70 is larger than a V40, but smaller than a V90).
The first generation (1996–2000) debuted in November 1996. It was based on the P80 platform and was available with front and all-wheel drive (AWD), the latter marketed as the V70 AWD. In September 1997 a crossover version called the V70 XC or V70 Cross Country was introduced. The sedan model was called Volvo S70. Read more...
The Volvo XC90 is a mid-size luxury crossover SUV manufactured and marketed by Volvo Cars since 2002 and now in its second generation.
The first generation was introduced at the 2002 North American International Auto Show and used the Volvo P2 platform shared with the first generation Volvo S80 and other large Volvo cars. It was manufactured at Volvo's Torslandaverken. Volvo moved production equipment of the first generation to China and ended Swedish production at the end of 2014, renaming the car as the Volvo XC Classic (or Volvo XC90 Classic). Read more...
The Volvo 900 Series is a range of executive cars produced by the Swedish manufacturer Volvo Cars from 1990 to 1998. The 900 Series was introduced in 1990 to replace the 700 Series from which it derived. Prior to the end of its production, the 960 was renamed as the Volvo S90 (saloon) and Volvo V90 (estate), and the 940 was renamed 940 Classic, becoming the last rear-wheel-drive cars from Volvo.
Visible differences between the 700 and the 900 Series included redesigned rear styling of the saloon models (late 700 estates and early 900 estates are visually identical). The 960 was introduced in 1991 along with a new family of modular engines, and then was substantially revised for the 1995 model year, improving the handling. The range was first augmented and finally supplanted by the Volvo 850 in 1993, with the last of the 900s being sold in 1998. Some 900 Series were built as chassis for ambulances and hearses after the main production run had been completed. Read more...
The Volvo 850 is a compact executive car that was produced by the Swedish manufacturer Volvo Cars from 1991 to 1997. Designed by Jan Wilsgaard, the car was introduced in a saloon body style; an estate style was introduced in 1993.
The Volvo 850 was shown for the first time in June 1991, and the car marked a departure for Volvo, featuring multiple unprecedented features for the company; these included a transverse 5-cylinder engine driving the front wheels, a Delta-link rear axle, a side impact protection system, and a self-adjusting front seat belt mechanism. Read more...
The Volvo S90 is a mid-size luxury sedan manufactured and marketed by Swedish automaker Volvo Cars since 2016. Its estate variant is called the Volvo V90. Read more...
Polestar Cyan Racing is the official Volvo factory auto racing team, based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The team currently competes in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship (STCC). The team’s current drivers are Fredrik Ekblom, Thed Björk and Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland, who race Volvo S60s in the Scandinavian championship.
The team was founded by Jan "Flash" Nilsson as Flash Engineering in 1996. Christian Dahl bought the team in 2005 and renamed it Polestar Racing. After Dahl sold the Polestar performance road car division to Volvo, the team was renamed Cyan Racing. Read more...
The Volvo S80 is an executive car produced by the Swedish manufacturer Volvo Cars from 1998 to 2016 across two generations. It took the place of the rear-wheel-drive S90 as Volvo's flagship sedan.
The first generation (1998–2006) was made available for the 1999 model year. It has since been built at the Torslanda Works in Gothenburg, Sweden, with a few 1999 model year cars for the North American market built at Volvo's Halifax Assembly plant. Unlike most Volvo models, it did not have a station wagon version for its first generation. Read more...
Volvo Buses (Formal name: Volvo Bussar AB) (stylized as VOLVO) is a subsidiary and a business area of the Swedish vehicle maker Volvo, which became an independent division in 1968. It is based in Gothenburg.
It is the world's largest bus manufacturer, with a complete range of heavy buses for passenger transportation. The product range includes complete buses and coaches as well as chassis combined with a comprehensive range of services. Read more...
The Volvo XC60 is a compact luxury crossover SUV manufactured and marketed by Swedish automaker Volvo Cars since 2008. It is now in its second generation.
The XC60 is part of Volvo's 60 Series of automobiles, along with the S60, S60 Cross Country, V60, and V60 Cross Country. The first generation model introduced a new style for the 60 Series models. Along with the rest of the lineup, the first-generation XC60 was refreshed in 2013. Similarly, the second-generation model, released in 2017, is the first in the series. Read more...
The Volvo 164 is a 4-door, 6-cylinder luxury sedan unveiled by Volvo at the Paris Motor Show early in October 1968 and first sold as a 1969 model. 46,008 164s were built before the car was superseded by the 264 in 1975. The 164 was Volvo's first venture into the luxury segment since the end of PV 60 production in 1950, and was the first six-cylinder Volvo since the PV800 last produced in 1958. Read more...
The Volvo V40 is a small family car manufactured and marketed by Volvo Cars since 2012. It was unveiled at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show and has been on sale in Europe since May 2012, and the United Kingdom since August 2012. Read more...
The Volvo S90 is a mid-size luxury sedan manufactured and marketed by Swedish automaker Volvo Cars since 2016. Its estate variant is called the Volvo V90. Read more...- The following table summarises a list of Volvo Car production plants.
The list includes manufacturing and assembly plants wholly owned or wholly operated by the Volvo Car Corporation, in addition to joint-venture plants in which Volvo Car held equity stakes. Read more...
The Volvo 140 Series is a line of mid-size cars manufactured and marketed by Volvo from 1966 to 1974 in two- and four-door sedan (models 142 and 144 respectively) as well as five door station wagon (model 145) body styles—with numerous intermediate facelifts. More than a million Volvo 140s were built.
Volvo Cars began manufacturing the Volvo 144 at Torslandaverken in the late summer of 1966 for the 1967 model year. The 144 series, which followed the Volvo Amazon (replacing it in its fourth model year), was the first Volvo to use a tri-digit nomenclature, indicating series, number of cylinders and number of doors. Thus, a "144" was a 1st series, 4-cylinder, 4-door sedan. The 144 was the first Volvo to feature a more rectilinear or boxy styling. Compared to the Volvo Amazon, the 140 was a radical departure with minimal exterior and interior carryover, notably a stylised version of the front split grille. The car's basic shape would survive into the 1990s as the 200 series. Mechanically, the car used many of the same drivetrain components as the Amazon, but also showcased many improvements, including disc brakes on all four wheels. It was named car of the year in 1966 by Swedish magazine Teknikens Värld. The engine in the standard 144 was the same as found in the standard Amazon (121), the 1.8l B18A, but the 144S was given the more powerful B18B from the 123GT and 1800S. Late in the 1967 model year production of the Volvo 142 (2-door sedan) began, in time to build 1500 units for the first year. In 1968 production of the Volvo 145 5-door station wagon began, completing the three body styles used in the 140 range. Read more...- ===Annual sales (all models)===
In 2017, Volvo achieved record sales for the fourth year in a row, with 571,000 cars sold. Read more...
The project was originally started in 1957 because Volvo wanted a sports car to compete in the US & European markets, despite the fact that their previous attempt, the P1900, had failed to take off with only 68 cars sold. The man behind the project was an engineering consultant to Volvo, Helmer Petterson, who in the 1940s was responsible for the Volvo PV444. Unknown to him, design work was done by his son Pelle, under the tutelage of Italian auto stylist Pietro Frua while Frua's studio as a subsidiary of the prestigious carrozzeria Ghia. Volvo insisted it was an Italian design by Frua and only in 2009 officially recognized Pelle Petterson's authorship. Carrozzeria Frua built the first three prototypes between September 1957 and early 1958, later designated by Volvo in September 1958: P958-X1, P958-X2 and P958-X3 (P:Project, 9:September, 58:Year 1958 = P958, X: eXperimental.).
In December 1957 Helmer Petterson drove X1, (the first hand-built P1800 prototype) to Osnabrück, West Germany, headquarters of Karmann. Petterson hoped that Karmann would be able to take on the tooling and building of the P1800. Karmann's engineers had already been preparing working drawings from the wooden styling buck at Frua. Petterson and Volvo chief engineer Thor Berthelius met there, tested the car and discussed the construction with Karmann. They were ready to build it and this meant that the first cars could hit the market as early as December 1958. But in February, Karmann's most important customer, Volkswagen VAG, forbade Karmann to take on the job. They feared that the P1800 would compete with the sales of their own cars, and threatened to cancel all their contracts with Karmann if they took on this car. This setback almost caused the project to be abandoned. Read more...
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The first Volvo car, a Volvo ÖV 4, left the assembly line on 14 April 1927
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