Volvo Owes 90 Years of Automotive Mastery to a Seafood Dinner
Luckily for us, Volvo's founders both liked crayfish
It’s hard to believe that Volvo is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its first model rolling off the production line in Gothenburg, Sweden, but it’s true. The Volvo ÖV 4 was the first car ever built by Volvo, and it would never have seen the light of day if Gustaf Larson and his friend Assar Gabrielsson hadn’t both enjoyed crayfish.
Join Volvo Cars Silver Spring for a look back on Volvo’s history, all the way back to that fateful seafood dinner.
Gustaf meets up with Assar
Back in August 1924, Gustaf Larson found himself in a seafood restaurant in Stockholm, lured by the promise of a fresh crayfish dinner. Inside, he ran into his friend and former colleague Assar Gabrielsson.
Over the course of the meal, both men remarked on the number of U.S. cars being imported into Sweden. They wondered, couldn’t their country make its own vehicles? Just a month later, they'd begun work on their Swedish car.
Volvo rolls into history
Volvo was the perfect name for the founders’ company—not only did it once belong to a product at the ball bearing company where both of them worked, but the word (Latin for “I roll”) also fit their automobile, the first of which rolled through the factory gates in 1927. The company’s first vehicle sported an open top, a 28-hp four-cylinder engine, and a body made of ash and beech named the ÖV 4 (which stood for "Öppen Vagn 4,” or “Open Vehicle 4”).
Safety innovations over the years
After the ÖV 4, Volvo rose to prominence in Europe and North America, with the U.S. becoming Volvo’s largest global market by 1974. One of the brand’s claims to fame was its commitment to incredible safety features (to the point where the U.S. government used Volvo as the benchmark for car safety standards in 1976).
From the invention of the three-point safety belt to the integration of a side-impact protection system and automatic height-adjustable safety belt mechanism, Volvo is renowned for producing vehicles drivers can trust to keep them safe, and we fully expect even more innovations in the future.
We're very excited about what's in store for Volvo's future. To learn more about the incredibly safe and stylish vehicles Volvo has to offer you (or to take one for a test drive), don't hesitate to call, contact us online, or visit us at 3121 Automobile Blvd, Silver Spring, MD 20904 today.
Image Credit: MarkusHagenlocher CC BY-SA 3.0