Volvo celebrates 80 years of building cars

Eighty years ago the first Volvo car, the ÖV4 ‘Jakob’, left the factory in Gothenburg, and to celebrate the anniversary Volvo in the UK will be hosting an event showcasing more than 120 classic models. Founded in 1927 in the city of Gothenburg, Volvo started off as a subsidiary of a ball-bearing manufacturer.

It wasn’t until 1935 that Volvo AB became a standalone company. Volvo Cars was owned by the Volvo Group until 1999 when it was subsequently sold to Ford.

The ÖV4, which stands for in Swedish ‘Öppen Vagn 4 cylindrar’ (Open Carriage 4 cylinders) was produced in a limited run of just 996 cars and only one of the cars remains to this day at a Volvo museum in Sweden. It featured a 2.0L four-cylinder engine with 28hp and weighed in at 1,170kg.