HISTORY OF VOLVO

VOLVO HISTORY

AB '''Volvo''' (or ''Aktiebolaget Volvo'') is a Swedish world leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles, buses and construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications, aerospace components and services. The group also provides complete solutions for financing and service.

Founded in April 141927 in the city of Gothenburg, as a spin-off from roller ball bearing maker SKF. Volvo Cars, the automobile manufacturer, has since 1999 been owned by the Ford Motor Company.

''Volvo'' is Latin for "I roll", and although fitting well to their products, vehicles, it was originally a name for a ball bearing being developed by the company SKF, which provided funding to a few employees to set up the car-manufacturing business.

The Volvo Group today has more than 81,000 employees, with manufacturing in 25 countries and sales in more than 185 markets. The Volvo Group's net sales 2004 amounted to €22 billion.

Change of strategy

Among the reasons why Volvo took the initiative to sell the automobile manufacturing was the increasing development costs for new car models, coupled with the fact that it was a relatively small producer. The strategy was instead to grow as a truck manufacturer where it had a stronger market position. The buyout of Volvo Cars was announced on January 28, 1998 in the following year acquisition was completed at a price of $6.45 billion USD. Volvo used the funds from the sale of the automobile division to finance the purchase of Scania, another leading Swedish truck manufacturer, but the deal was stopped for competition reasons by the European Union. Instead Volvo acquired the commercial vehicles division of French Renault and the American truck manufacturer Mack.

The Volvo trademark

The Volvo™ trademark is now jointly owned (50/50) by Volvo and Ford. One of the main promotional activities for the trademark is the sailing contest Volvo Ocean Race, formerly the ''Whitbread Around the World Cup''. There is also a Volvo Baltic Race.

Volvo companies

Business areas

The Volvo Group is organised into the following business areas:

*Volvo Trucks *Mack Trucks *Renault Trucks *Volvo Buses *Volvo Construction Equipment *Volvo Penta *Volvo Aero *Volvo Financial Services *Volvo Marine

Business units

The group business areas are supported by a number of business units:

*Volvo 3P *Volvo Powertrain *Volvo Parts *Volvo Technology *Volvo Information Technology *Volvo Logistics *Volvo Technology Transfer *Volvo Business Services *Celero Support *Volvo Cars

Source: Wikipedia

	Model	Year	KM's	Location	Price
	volvo v40 t se	2000	93,899	Victoria, Australia	$16,990 AUD
	volvo s60 t	2000	134,003	Victoria, Australia	$21,990 AUD
	volvo v70 20v se	2000	84,481	Victoria, Australia	$28,990 AUD
	volvo s80 t6 se	2000	119,584	Queensland, Australia	$24,990 AUD
	volvo v70	2000	0	New South Wales, Australia	POA