Swedish Cars

Sweden being a small country with around 9 million people living in it, is not the sort of place you would expect to make a great deal of cars.

Most people know that Volvos are Swedish, and even Saab.
As ownership of the companies moves overseas and some of the manufacturing also both Volvo and Saab become more and more part of their respective global corporate families.

But is Volvo and Saab all there is and has been to Swedish cars?

NO!

Since 1842 over 150 different brands of cars have been produced in Sweden.

Not only has there been, and still is, a strong automotive industry (also with heavier vehicles like Scania and Volvo Trucks and components like the Haldex four wheel drive system), but there are also a lot of car enthusiasts in Sweden, and the world´s largest American Car Meeting is held in Sweden every year. There are also a lot of car clubs and forums / communities active in Sweden and a fair ammount of racing.

But back to the Swedish cars.
Two examples of the most recent interesting cars to come out of Sweden was the Volvo drivetrain based roadster JC Indigo and the current super sports car and record holder Koenigsegg.

The first Swedish car with an internal combustion engine was built by Gustaf Erikson and the company Vabis in 1897 in Södertälje, south of Stockholm.
Many of the over 150 brands of cars were very low volume, but there are some notable exceptions.

One prominent brands of car in Sweden over the years include Thulin (car on exibit in the Technical Museum of Stockholm) in the 1920s.
The first Volvo was produced in 1927 and the first Saab in 1946.
One car seen a lot of in the 60s was Tjorven, a car custom built for the Swedish post office, but it was also sold to others.

Less known is that for a while the Brittish sports car Ginetta was assembled deep in the dark Swedish forests.

Here you can read more about the history of Volvo or Saab.

An excellent book on the subjects is "Svenska Bilar" by Gunnar Stålbrand and Gert Ekström, ISBN 91-5183195-3.
Only published in Swedish.

This page is part of fredrikhesse.com