Beginning. The company was established in Göteborg (Sweden) in 1927.
Development. Until 1999, the brand was owned by AB Volvo. Later, Volvo cars were taken over by Ford.
Present.On 29 March 2010, Volvo was sold to a Chinese company—Geely Automobile—for 1.8 billion dollars. The company was established in 1986 and initially manufactured freezers and motorcycle parts from 1992 and complete motorcycles from 1994. Since 1998, Geely has been manufacturing passenger cars.
Contribution to the automotive industry. Volvo is known for its high safety standards. In 1958, Nils Bohlin, a Volvo engineer developed and patented a modern three-point seat belt system, which was implemented in all Volvo cars in 1959. In 1964, the company developed the first rear-facing child seat. In 1986, Volvo began to install high-mounted stop lamps. In 1991, the company presented three-point seat belts, protecting the passenger sitting in the centre rear seat. Since 1996, all Volvo models have been equipped with airbags and two years later curtain air bags were introduced. According to research, the latter protection reduces the risk of death in the case of a side collision by 40%. In 2004, Volvo launched cars introduced with the BLIS system, which detects cars in the blind spot. However, in accordance with the American Road Safety Authority, the S40 and S60 models did not achieve the highest safety standards in 2009 (in a side impact crash test). In recent years, Volvo cars did receive the highest ratings (the XC90, S80 and C70 models).
Trivia. The company's cars are associated with very high mileage. In 1966, the P1800 model travelled 2.8 million kilometres, which was entered in the Guinness Book of Records. According to the data, the average age of a Volvo car is 19.8 years (only Mercedes cars are more durable).
Contemporary Volvo models: Volvo S40, Volvo S60, Volvo V50, Volvo V60, Volvo V70, Volvo S80, Volvo XC60, Volvo XC70, Volvo C70, Volvo C30.