The same car in the same place – but 85 years later

On 14 April 1927, the first mass-produced Volvo car rolled off the production
line at the Lundby factory in Göteborg. Now, 85 years later, the Volvo Group is
one of the world's largest manufacturers of commercial vehicles and Volvo Car
Corporation sells almost 500,000 cars each year.
At 10 in the morning on 14 April 1927, sales manager Hilmer Johansson drove the
first mass-produced ÖV4 model through the factory gates in Lundby in Göteborg.
Now, 85 years later, the same model will pass through exactly the same gates to
celebrate Volvo's birthday. Stefan Jacoby, President and CEO of Volvo Car
Corporation, and Olof Persson, President and CEO of the Volvo Group, will be
behind the wheel. (See the attached pictures). "It's a fantastic car, but it's
easy to see how much has changed over the last 85 years," says Stefan Jacoby,
who recently premiered the new V40 at the Geneva Motor Show.

The Volvo Group
and Volvo Car Corporation are two companies with a long shared history. However,
what was at that time one company began as a very unpromising project, because
Volvo's founders Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson had no direct experience of
cars or the automotive industry. During its first year of production, Volvo sold
a very modest 300 cars. However, in the following year business really began to
take off, when the company also started manufacturing trucks and buses. Even
back then Volvo realised that the key to success lay in exports. "Our roots are
still very important to us. Around 30,000 of the Volvo Group's 120,000 employees
work in Sweden, but 95 percent of our products are sold outside the country,"
says Olof Persson. The equivalent figures for Volvo Car Corporation are 14,500
employees in Sweden out of a worldwide total of 21,500. Around 87 percent of all
Volvo Car Corporation’s sales take place outside Sweden.

In 1999, the Volvo
Group sold its car business. Since then, the two companies have continued to
grow in different directions. Volvo Car Corporation is now in the premium
segment and last year sold around 450,000 cars in 120 countries, with the USA as
its single largest market. The Volvo Group produces trucks under the Volvo,
Renault Trucks, Mack and UD Trucks brands, together with buses, construction
equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications and components
for aircraft engines. With a turnover of SEK 310 billion, the Volvo Group is the
world's second largest manufacturer of heavy trucks and Sweden's largest
company. The group has production sites in 20 countries and sales organisations
in 190.

As a reslut of Volvo’s birthday Volvo Museum in Gothenburg will keep
an open house at 11.00-16.00, April 14. If the weather is fine, a parade to the
city center with both new and vintage vehicles will be organized.

Download
pictures

1927 (http://images.volvogroup.com/ShowRecord.jsp?server=damdbp2&cata
logName=AB%20Volvo&recordID=1850&encoding=UTF
-8)
2012 (http://images.volvogroup.com/ShowRecord.jsp?server=damdbp2&catalogName
=AB%20Volvo&recordID=1849&encoding=UTF-8)

Link to Volvo Cars
Heritage (http://www.volvocars.com/intl/top/community/heritage/Pages/default.asp
x 
)
Link to the history of the Volvo
Group (http://www.volvogroup.com/group/global/en
-gb/volvo%20group/history/Pages/history.aspx)

2012-04-13

Journalists who
need further information, please contact Per-Åke Fröberg, Volvo Cars, on +46
(0)31 59 65 25 or Mårten Wikforss, AB Volvo, on +46 (0)31 66 11 27 or +46 (0)705
59 11 49.

For more stories from the Volvo Group, please visit
http://www.volvogroup.com/globalnews.

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The
Volvo Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks, buses and
construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications and
aerospace components. The Group also provides complete solutions for financing
and service. The Volvo Group, which employs about 115,000 people, has production
facilities in 20 countries and sells their products in more than 190 markets. In
2011 annual sales of the Volvo Group amounted to about SEK 310 billion. The
Volvo Group is a publicly-held company headquartered in Göteborg, Sweden. Volvo
shares are listed on OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm. For more information, please
visit www.volvogroup.com or www.volvogroup.mobi if you are using your mobile
phone.