car corporation . for commercial vehicles otherwise known as the volvo group see volvo . for other uses of volvo see volvo disambiguation . volvo personvagnar ab volvo car corporation type subsidiary ab industry automotive founded 14 april 1927 headquarters gothenburg sweden key people li shufu chairman h kan samuelsson president and ceo hans olov olsson vice chairman products luxury vehicles revenue sek 164.043 billion 2015 operating income sek 6.620 billion 2015 net income sek 4.476 billion 2015 owner geely sweden ab number of employees 28 485 2015 parent zhejiang geely holding group divisions polestar subsidiaries volvo cars asia pacific volvo cars of canada volvo cars of north america website volvocars.com volvo cars international website volvo car corporation headquarters volvo car corporation swedish volvo personvagnar stylized as volvo is a swedish luxury vehicle manufacturer established in 1927 and headquartered in gothenburg sweden where it operates out of the vak building . 1 it is a wholly owned subsidiary of zhejiang geely holding group of china . volvo car corporation was originally founded as a subsidiary of the ball bearing maker skf . 2 when volvo ab was introduced on the swedish stock exchange in 1935 skf sold most of the shares in the company . volvo cars was owned by ab volvo until 1999 when it was acquired by the ford motor company as part of its premier automotive group . geely holding group then acquired volvo cars from ford in 2010 . 3 volvo cars manufactures and markets sport utility vehicles station wagons sedans compact executive sedans and coupes . with approximately 2 300 local dealers from around 100 national sales companies worldwide volvo cars largest markets are the united states sweden china and belgium . 4 in 2011 volvo cars sold 449 255 cars globally an increase of 20.3 % compared to 2010 . 5 in its home country sweden volvo holds the number one place in terms of sales with over 71 000 units sold in 2015 6 contents 1 history 1.1 1927 99 1.2 ford era 1.3 geely era 2 safety 2.1 safety milestones 3 car models 3.1 early years 3.2 tri digit nomenclature 3.3 post tri digit models 3.4 current models 3.5 concept cars 4 alternative propulsion 4.1 flexible fuel vehicles 4.2 plug in hybrids 4.3 electric car 4.4 gas turbine hybrid 4.5 drive e engines 5 production locations around the world 6 assembly plants 7 future assembly plants 8 component plants 9 engine types 10 transmissions 10.1 automatic transmissions 10.2 manual transmissions 11 motorsport 12 marketing 12.1 logo 12.2 sponsorship 13 volvo trademark lawsuit 14 see also 15 references 16 external links history edit 1927 99 edit gustav larson and assar gabrielsson volvo company was founded in 1927 in gothenburg sweden the company was created as a subsidiary company 100 % owned by skf . assar gabrielsson was appointed the managing director and gustav larson as the technical manager . cars are driven by people . the guiding principle behind everything we make at volvo therefore is and must remain safety assar gabrielsson and gustav larson 1927 7 8 volvo logotype prv registr . 1927 the trademark volvo which is latin for i roll was first registered by skf the 11 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 however in the application for the trademark it was also designated for the purpose of automobiles . skf trademark as it looks today was used instead for all the skf products . some pre series of volvo bearings stamped with the brand name 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 . the first volvo car left the assembly line on 14 april 1927 and was called volvo v 4 . after this the young company produced closed top and cabriolet vehicles which were designed to hold strong in the swedish climate and terrain . in the registration application for volvo logotype in 1927 they simply made a copy of the entire radiator for v4 viewed from the front . presented in 1944 the volvo pv444 passenger car only entered production in 1947 . it was the smallest volvo yet and was to take the lion s share of volvo production as well as spearheading their move into the profitable american market . the first volvos arrived in the united states in 1955 after hardware wholesaler leo hirsh began distributing cars in california . later texas was added and in 1956 volvo themselves began importing cars to the us . north america has consistently provided volvo with their main outlet since . 9 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 . 10 in 1964 volvo opened its torslanda plant in sweden which currently is one of its largest production sites chiefly large cars and suvs . 11 then in 1965 the ghent belgium plant was opened which is the company s second largest production site . 12 this was also volvo s first location producing cars within the european economic community . 10 in 1989 the uddevalla plant in sweden was opened which was jointly operated by volvo car corporation and pininfarina sverige ab from 2005 to 2013 . 13 volvo v4 touring 1927 volvo pv4 4 door saloon 1927 volvo 144 saloon 1972 1997 volvo 850 estate 2002 volvo s80 volvo s long time ceo pehr g. gyllenhammar saw early on that volvo was too small to survive in the future and attempted several times to merge with other manufacturers . volvo nearly merged with saab in the late seventies while in 1978 an aborted affair would have seen the norwegian state take over 40 percent of the company . in return volvo would receive 200 million sek and a ten percent concession in the oseberg oil field . major institutional actors in sweden opposed the deal and blocked it . 14 a deal to merge with renault was blocked in 1993 mainly opposed by a swedish stockholders association . 15 a collection of volvo s most important historical vehicles are now housed in the volvo museum which opened in a permanent location in arendal at hisingen on 30 may 1995 . 16 for several years the collection had been housed at the blue hangar at the then closed torslanda airport . 16 in the early 1970s volvo acquired the passenger car division of the dutch company daf and marketed their small cars as volvos before releasing the dutch built volvo 340 which went on to be one of the biggest selling cars in the uk market in the 1980s . 1986 marked a record year for volvo in the us with 113 267 cars sold . the appearance of japanese luxury brands like acura and lexus in subsequent years meant the loss of a significant market share for volvo one which they have never regained . 9 in 1999 volvo group decided to sell its automobile manufacturing business and concentrate on commercial vehicles . ford saw advantages in acquiring a profitable prestige mid size european automobile manufacturer well renowned for its safety aspects as an addition to its premier automotive group . the buyout of volvo cars was announced on 28 january 1999 17 and in the following year the acquisition was completed at a price of us 6.45 equivalent to 9.16 in 2015 billion . as a result of the divestiture the volvo trademark is now utilized by two separate companies volvo group a manufacturer of commercial vehicles etc. owned by swedish interests volvo car corporation or volvo cars a manufacturer of automobiles owned by zhejiang geely holding group and formerly owned by ford motor company ford era edit volvo car corporation was part of ford motor company s premier automotive group pag along with jaguar aston martin and land rover . while part of the pag the company grew in its range of vehicles significantly . after ford sold jaguar land rover to tata motors of india in 2008 the company initially decided to keep volvo cars despite mounting losses and gross economic downturns . ford decided to restructure plans for volvo cars pushing it further upmarket alongside the lower end of mercedes and bmw sedans wagons and suv crossovers . the outcome was the luxurious second generation volvo s80 and the new small premium crossover volvo xc60 . when the global economic crisis of 2008 threatened the us automakers swedish authorities became concerned about the fate of volvo if ford would file for bankruptcy . these concerns mounted after repeated mass layoffs at volvo . ford announced in december 2008 that it was considering selling volvo cars . initially a sale price of us 6 billion was reported 18 ford reported it was also looking into the possibility of spinning off volvo as an independent company . the swedish government was asked to look into a possible state ownership of volvo or a financial bailout for volvo cars and saab of gm . former parent ab volvo agreed to help volvo cut costs through partnerships and suggested taking part in a shared ownership of volvo cars amongst a larger consortium . other rumored candidates to purchase volvo cars included bmw ag of germany investor ab of sweden chinese investors or russian investors . although it was rumoured that volkswagen would buy volvo cars and despite initial denials chinese company geely holding group was ultimately selected to take over the swedish automaker . 19 geely group holdings co. allegedly bid about us 1.5 billion to take over volvo with goldman sachs investing hk 2.59 billion 334 million usd in the holding company . 20 21 22 geely era edit ford motor company offered volvo cars for sale in december 2008 after suffering losses that year . 23 on 28 october 2009 ford confirmed that after considering several offers the preferred buyer of volvo cars was zhejiang geely holding group the parent of chinese motor manufacturer geely automobile . 24 25 on 23 december 2009 ford confirmed the terms of the sale to geely had been settled . a definitive agreement was signed on 28 march 2010 for 1.8 billion . the european commission and china s ministry of commerce approved the deal on 6 and 29 july 2010 respectively . the deal closed on 2 august 2010 with geely paying 1.3 billion cash and a 200 million note . further payments are expected with a later price true up . 26 27 it is the largest overseas acquisition by a chinese automaker . 28 stefan jacoby formerly chief executive of volkswagen of america became volvo car corporation s president and chief executive on 16 august 2010 replacing stephen odell who became chief executive of ford europe . li shufu became volvo cars chairman of the board . his board members include vice chairman hans olov olsson a former president and chief executive of volvo cars and h kan samuelsson formerly chief executive of man . 29 safety edit volvo cars have long been marketed and stressed their historic reputation for solidity and reliability . prior to strong government safety regulation volvo had been at the forefront of safety engineering . 30 in 1944 laminated glass was introduced in the pv model . 31 after vattenfall engineers presented their pioneering work to volvo in the 1950s 32 volvo engineer nils bohlin invented and patented the modern three point safety belt which became standard on all volvo cars in 1959 33 and then made this design patent open in the interest of safety and made it available to other car manufacturers for free . 34 35 additionally volvo developed the first rear facing child seat in 1964 31 and introduced its