Early years and international expansion , 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. 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. 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 considers itself to have started in 1927, when the first car, a
Volvo ÖV 4, rolled off the production line at the factory in
Hisingen, Gothenburg. Only 280 cars were built that year. The first truck, the "Series 1", debuted in January 1928 as an immediate success, and attracted attention outside the country. 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. Bolinder-Munktell was renamed as Volvo BM in 1973. In 1979, Volvo BM's agricultural equipment business was sold to
Valmet. Later, through restructuring and acquisitions, the remaining construction equipment business became
Volvo Construction Equipment. and Renault acquired a minority stake, The alliance was officially dissolved in February 1994 and Volvo sold off its minority stake in Renault in 1997. During the 1990s, Volvo also partnered with the American manufacturer
General Motors. In 1999, the European Union blocked a merger with
Scania AB.
Refocusing on heavy vehicles , 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. In November 1999, Volvo Group purchased a 5% stake in Mitsubishi Motors, as part of a partnership deal for the truck and bus business. In 2001, after
DaimlerChrysler bought a large stake in Mitsubishi Motors, Volvo sold its shares to the former.
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. Renault increased its shareholding to 21.7% by 2010. 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. Renault sold 14.9% of its 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. That same year, Volvo sold Volvo Aero to the British company
GKN. 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 15.8% of voting rights). In December 2013, Volvo sold its
Volvo Construction Equipment Rents division to
Platinum Equity. 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. The project for selling the division was later abandoned and, in May 2018, Volvo reorganized Renault Trucks Defense and renamed it Arquus. 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. The sale was completed in March 2019. 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. The "final agreements" for the alliance were signed in October 2020, with the UD Trucks sale to be finalized pending regulatory clearances. The sale was completed in April 2021. 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. In March 2021, the fuel cell business was reorganised as a joint venture called Cellcentric. 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. In December 2022, the joint venture (called Commercial Vehicle Charging Europe) began operations under the
trade name of
Milence. 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. The partnership is derived from SSAB's own green steel venture, HYBRIT. In November 2023, Volvo acquired
Proterra's battery business for US$210 million. Volvo has announced that it is developing
trucks with combustion engines that run on hydrogen. Commercial tests will begin in early 2026. 2025,
BIEC ==Corporate==