Long before it built trucks, Scania made bicycles, and its badge still remembers it: a griffin from Skåne's coat of arms set inside a stylised pedal crank.
- Country
-
Sweden - Active
- Since 1891
- Founded by
- Philip Wersén and Surahammars bruk (Vabis)
- Website
- Official website ↗
Railway wagons in Södertälje, bicycles in Malmö
Scania’s story starts with two companies, not one. And neither of them built trucks.
The first was Vagnfabriks Aktiebolaget i Södertelge, Vabis for short, set up in December 1891 by engineer and industrialist Philip Wersén together with Surahammars bruk, a centuries-old ironworks. Its factory by the Saltskog inlet in Södertälje made goods wagons, baggage cars, passenger carriages and horse-drawn trams. Locals simply called it “Vagnfabriken”, the wagon factory. In 1897 it produced what Scania describes as the first completely Swedish-built car, with designer Gustaf Erikson at the controls on its maiden drive in early 1898.
The second began with bicycles. In 1896 the English bicycle maker Humber & Co opened a subsidiary in Malmö, and four years later a newly formed Swedish company took it over. Its name was Maskinfabriksaktiebolaget Scania. Scania is the Latin name for Skåne, Sweden’s southernmost province, where that bicycle production started. Soon the Malmö works was making cars and trucks too.
In 1902 both companies introduced their first trucks. Nine years later they stopped competing. In 1911 they merged as Scania-Vabis under Per Alfred Nordeman, and the head office moved to Södertälje, where it has stayed.
A griffin on a pedal crank
The badge is older than the merger. In 1901 the Malmö company registered a logotype with a griffin at the centre of a stylised bicycle pedal crank. It’s a neat piece of company memory: the crank points straight back to the bicycles that started it all.
When Scania and Vabis joined forces in 1911, the crank and griffin were kept and combined with both names, Scania and Vabis, to form the trademark of the new company.
Why a lion with an eagle’s head?
The griffin wasn’t invented for the trucks. According to Scania, it was borrowed from the 17th century coat of arms of the region, the same southern province that gave the company its name. Scania describes the creature as a mythical four-footed animal with the hind legs and tail of a lion and the forelegs, head and wings of an eagle, and traces its origins to India around 3000 BC.
So the emblem tells two stories at once. The griffin stands for the province of Skåne. The pedal crank around it stands for the bicycle business where Scania began. You’ll often read that the griffin symbolises strength or vigilance, but that interpretation doesn’t appear in Scania’s own account of its trademark.
Lost, found and polished
The griffin hasn’t always been on the front of the trucks. In 1969 Scania-Vabis merged with the car and aircraft maker Saab to form Saab-Scania, and the group decided to use only the wordmark SCANIA on its trucks and buses. The Vabis name disappeared from the vehicles, and so did the crank and griffin.
The creature came back in 1984, when Saab-Scania went back to using a trademark as its corporate symbol. The new symbol was created by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, best known for his sculpture of a gun with a knotted barrel outside the United Nations buildings in New York. This time the griffin wasn’t held by a pedal crank. Spherical rings surrounded it instead.
In 1995 Saab-Scania was split in two and Scania became an independent company again. It needed its own symbol, and it went back to its roots: the classic pedal crank and griffin, redrawn in a modern form. That design carried on for two decades. In 2016 the logotype was updated for the first time in 20 years, with a more distinct wordmark and a three-dimensional finish on the symbol, so that the printed logo looks more like the physical badge on the vehicles.
Trucks, buses and a famous V8
Cars came first, but trucks and buses soon became Scania’s main products, alongside industrial and marine engines. A lot of its milestones are about what sits under the cab.
Landmark Scanias, decade by decade
- 1902: First Scania truck. It carried 1.5 tonnes of cargo, with a two-cylinder 12 hp engine placed under the driver’s seat.
- 1939: Royal engine. A unitary diesel engine and the first to use standardised components, the beginning of Scania’s modular system.
- 1969: V8 engine. A 350 hp, 14-litre turbocharged V8, the most powerful truck engine in Europe at the time.
- 1980: GPRT range (2-series). Scania’s first entirely modularised product range, and Giorgio Giugiaro of Italdesign was instrumental in giving it a unique character.
- 1991: Streamline. A cab range that cut the drag factor by 12 to 15 percent compared with earlier models and gained cult status among truck fans across Europe.
- 2004: R-series. The start of an era with a clearer identity for each cab type, followed by the P-series and T-series.
- 2016: New Generation trucks. A new modular cab range that introduced the flat-floored S-series, launched in the same year as the refreshed logo.
Scania has changed owners more than once. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group in 2014, and since 2018 it has been part of the TRATON GROUP alongside MAN. If you like Swedish badges with a story, compare the griffin with Volvo‘s, or read more on how car logos are designed.
Frequently asked questions
What animal is on the Scania logo?
A griffin. Scania describes it as a mythical animal with the hind legs and tail of a lion and the forelegs, head and wings of an eagle.
Why does Scania use a griffin?
According to Scania, the griffin was borrowed from the 17th century coat of arms of Skåne, the southern Swedish province whose Latin name, Scania, the company carries.
What is the round shape around the griffin?
A stylised bicycle pedal crank. The Malmö company that gave Scania its name started out making bicycles, and it registered the griffin and crank logotype in 1901.
What does Vabis stand for?
Vagnfabriks Aktiebolaget i Södertelge, a wagon maker founded in Södertälje in 1891. It merged with Scania in 1911 to form Scania-Vabis.
When did Scania get its current logo?
The pedal crank and griffin returned in a modernised form in 1995, when Scania became independent again. In 2016 the logotype was updated with a more distinct wordmark and a three-dimensional finish on the symbol.
Griffin, crank and V8
- Founded
- 1891
- Founder
- Philip Wersén and Surahammars bruk (Vabis)
- Country
- Sweden
- Headquarters
- Södertälje, Sweden
- Parent company
- TRATON GROUP (Volkswagen Group)
- Current emblem
- A griffin inside a stylised bicycle pedal crank, revived in modern form in 1995 and given a 3D finish in 2016
- Known for
- Heavy trucks, buses and V8 engines
- Website
- Official website ↗
