Volvo Cars was integrated into Ford’s Premier Automotive Group (PAG), which also consists of Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin. However, Volvo's design and R&D are actually independent of other PAG members. Instead, it shares platforms and components with Ford Europe and Mazda. For example, S40 / V50 was derived from the Ford Focus / Mazda 3 platform.
As everybody knows, Volvo is renowned for producing the
safest cars in the
world.
Its research and development in this field paid off when S40 and S80
scored
the highest marks in European NCAP crash test. It has many innovation
about
safety, such as SIPS (Side Impact Protection System), inflatable
curtain air bag and WHIPS (Whiplash
Protection
System).
It was also the first car maker taking pedestrian protection seriously.However, since the early 90s, Volvo has been building a more dynamic image to lure younger buyers. At the beginning, it launched high-performance versions of the 850 sedan (T5 and T5R). Then design chief Peter Horbury injected a new design direction to the company in the S80, V70 and S60. Under the umbrella of Ford, Volvo expanded its product range to 5 model lines, including the trend-setting XC90. Now it covers wider audience than ever.
2004 sales: 455,950 units
It concentrated on medium price to luxurious cars until the arrival of PV444 in 1947, the first small cars for Volvo. It doesn’t appears for technology, but the 4-cylinder car was aggressively priced. It was also the first mass production car for Volvo, resulted in 100,000 sales in 9 years. The next small car, Amazon (called 120 in overseas), was born in 1956. 667,000 units were produced during its 14 years life.
With PV444 and Amazon, Volvo expanded rapidly from the late 50’s to the 60’s. A larger plant at Torslanda was built to add an annual capacity of at most 200,000 cars.
The products were still conservative, excluding the P1800 sports car which was born in 1961. Today the 2-seater is still the only sports car Volvo ever produced. It was assembled in UK and powered by a 4-cylinder 1.8-litre engine.
In 1966, the Volvo 144 started establishing a reputation for safety. It had disc brakes all round, 3-point safety belts, crumple zones front and rear and fail-safe dual-channel brake system. A more important model, 240-series, was presented in 1974 and continuing serving the company until late 80’s. The 240 turbo was the first turbocharged Volvo and even performed strong in motor racing.
Volvo 760 / 740-series was born in 1982 as the company’s flagship model. Its angular shape dominated the company’s design philosophy until today’s S80. Its PRV V6 engine was developed jointly by PSA, Renault and Volvo itself. The relationship with Renault was extended to a talk for merger but eventually broke down.
Volvo also had a factory in Holland, which was mainly owned by the Dutch government. It was used to produce the "small Volvo", 440 / 460 / 480 series. In the 90s, Mitsubishi joined the venture by taking 18.3% stock. The factory became "Ned Car" and produced Volvo S40 and Mitsubishi Carisma.
The Volvo 850 of 1991 changed the company’s image from a conservative car maker to a dynamic brand. It was tuned to deliver a good handling. The modular 5-cylinder engine was developed by Porsche and in its hottest form, T5R, delivered 250 horsepower. Even so, the car still preserved the leading edge in safety by introducing a side impact protection chassis structure (SIPS).
The S80 of 1998 is undoubtedly another peak of Volvo. The same year also saw Volvo departed from its mother group and was sold to Ford.
The company used to emphasis
aircraft inspiration (thanks to its aircraft division which made
Swedish jet fighters JA35 / 37 / 39) and turbocharged 4-cylinder
engines (Saab 99 was the first mass production turbocharged car). In
recent years, its unique character is fading out as it uses Opel
platform and components increasingly to save costs.