According to readers of a Swedish engine website, Volvo is not as Swedish as it once was, media Dagbladet writes.
The company Volvo was established almost 95 years ago and has since embarked on an unparalleled Nordic car adventure, which has resulted in millions of cars sold around the world.
Volvo later changed the name to Volvo Cars and in 2019 alone, the company produced 705,452 cars that were distributed in about a hundred countries.
With almost one million cars produced and sold a year, it’s safe to say that the company is also large internationally.
In 1999, Volvo Cars were acquired by the American giant Ford Motor Company, while the trucks, buses, construction machinery, and boat engines were still owned by the company AB Volvo. In 2010 Chinese Zhejiang Geely Holding took over the ownership and Polestar, Geely Automobile, Lotus, Proton, and Lynk and Co are all also under the same umbrella as Volvo Cars today.
So how Swedish is the Swedish car brand? The question got car enthusiasts on the Swedish website Auto Motor Sport engaged and according to the approximately 1100 respondents in their survey, only 11 percent consider Volvo to be a Swedish company.
A total of 45 percent consider Volvo Cars to be Chinese – either in the form of private or state ownership, while about the same number (44%) consider Volvo Cars to be a Swedish-Chinese hybrid.
So how Swedish is the company, according to the company itself? Erik Trosby, Head of Communications at Volvo Car Norway, says that there are still many who see Volvo Cars as a Swedish brand, even though Volvo has had foreign owners since 1999 and that the company is a globally listed company today.
“This applies to Sweden, Norway, and other places. The reason for this, we believe, is that Volvo’s brand, history, traditions, values , and company structure are still strongly influenced by the Swedish and Scandinavian way,” Trosby explains.
