Volvo rolled into production on 14 April 1927, the first mass-produced was made at the Lundby factory in Göteborg.

Now, look where they are 85 years later. Volvo one of the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial vehicles and the Volvo Car Corporation sells around 500k cars annually.

Reconstructing the first day at in production when Hilmer Johansson drove the first mass-produced ÖV4 model through the factory gates.  Here we are 85 years later, the same model will pass through exactly the same gates to celebrate Volvo’s 85th birthday.

The current President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation, Stefan Jacoby and Olof Persson, President and CEO of the Volvo Group, will be at the wheel.

“It’s a fantastic car, but it’s easy to see how much has changed over the last 85 years,” says Stefan Jacoby, who recently premiered the new V40 at the Geneva Motor Show.

The two companies Volvo Group and Volvo Car Corporation share a long history. During the first year of production, Volvo sold just 300 cars. In the following year the businesses fortunes really began to take off, when the company began building trucks and buses. Volvo realised early on that the key to success was in exports. “Our roots are still very important to us. Now about 30k of the Volvo Group’s 120k employees work in Sweden, but 95 percent of our products are sold outside the country,” says Olof Persson. The equivalent figures for Volvo Car Corporation are 14.5k employees in Sweden out of a worldwide total of 21.5k. Around 87 percent of all Volvo Car Corporation’s sales take place outside Sweden. Volvo is now very much an international operation.

On this special day – Volvo’s 85th birthday the Volvo Museum in Gothenburg will keep an open house at 11.00-16.00, April 14. With a Volvo parade to the city centre.