CarBrandLogos archive · Volvo · 1927

VolvoÖV4

Sweden's first car, and it left the factory going backwards.

Photo: Vauxford · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Volvo history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Volvo ÖV4, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Assar Gabrielsson, a sales manager at the bearing manufacturer SKF, and Gustaf Larson, an engineer who had worked in Britain, agreed over dinner that Sweden should build its own car and that it should be built for Swedish conditions — bad roads, long distances and severe cold. SKF funded the venture, and production began at Lundby in Gothenburg in 1927.

PV4 1

Design and engineering

The first car, ÖV4 — Öppen Vagn, 4 cylinder — is remembered mostly for what happened when it was driven out of the works on 14 April 1927. The crown wheel in the rear axle had been fitted the wrong way round, so the car had four reverse gears and one forward, and it emerged from the factory travelling backwards. It was nicknamed Jakob, and Volvo has never tried to suppress the story.

Jakobframe · en:user:Svennex · Public domain

In production

The car itself was a conventional 1.9-litre side-valve four with a three-speed gearbox and an open four-seat touring body designed by the artist Helmer MasOlle. The open body was the founders' one real misjudgement: in a country with six months of winter, buyers wanted a roof. The closed PV4 that followed sold more than twice as many, and only 302 of the original tourers were built against 694 of the saloon.

Legacy

Volvo made its early money from trucks rather than cars, and it was a decade before the passenger vehicles were consistently profitable. But the founding principle — that the car should be engineered for the conditions it would actually meet — became the company's entire identity, and it is still the argument Volvo makes today.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Units built

302

Engine

1.9 L I4

Designer

Helmer MasOlle (bodywork)

Body

4-door Touring car

Technical specification

The ÖV4, in detail.

Production: 1927–1929; 302 produced (ÖV 4); 694 produced (PV 4); 996 total produced
Body style: 4-door Touring car; tourer (ÖV 4) ; 4-door sedan (PV 4); 2-door Pickup truck; pickup (ÖV 4 TV)
Engine: 1.9 L I4
Transmission: 3-speed manual
Designer: Helmer MasOlle (bodywork) ; Jan G. Smith (engineering)
Assembly: Sweden: Lundby, Gothenburg
Manufacturer: Volvo Personvagnar