Volvo company came about in Gothenburg, Sweden in the year 1927. The company was foundend by SKF as a subsidiary company 100% owned by SKF. Assar Gabrielsson was appointed the managing director and Gustav Larson as the technical manager. The company was founded on the bases of safety. “Cars are driven by people. Therefore the guiding principle behind everthing at Volvo is and must remain safety”, Assar Gabrielsson and Gustav Larson 1927. The trademark Volvo was first registered by SKF the 11th may 1915 with the intention to use it for a special series of ball bearing for the American market, but it was never used for this purpose. SKF trademark as it looks today was used instead for all the SKF-products. Some pre-series of Volvo-bearings (see the picture stamped with Volvo) were manufactured but was never released to the market and it was not until 1927 that the trademark was used again, now as a trademark and company name for an automobile. Volvo – “I roll”, was thought to be a good trademark for a ball bearing as well as for an automobile.
The first Volvo car left the assembly line April 14, 1927 was called Volvo ÖV 4. After this the young company produced closed top and cabriolet vehicles, which were designed to hold strong in the Swedish climate and terrain. The Volvo symbol is an ancient chemistry sign for iron. The iron sign is used to symbolize the strenght of iron used in the car as Sweden is known for its quality iron. The diagonal line (a strip of metal) across the grille came about to hold the actual symbol, a circle with an arrow, in front of the cooler. In the registration application for Volvo logotype in 1927, they simple made a copy of the entire cooler for ÖV4, viewed from the front.
In 1964 Volvo opened its Torslanda plant in Sweden, which currently is the one of its largest production sites ( chiefly large cars and SUV). Then in 1965 the Ghent, Belgium plant was opened, which is the companys’ second largest production site ( cheifly small cars). Finally in 1989 the Uddevalla plant in Sweden was opened, which is now jointly operated by Volvo Car Corporation and Pininfarina of Italy.
