Volvo Logo

A ball bearing name that learned to drive

Volvo is Latin for “I roll”. That was a perfect name for a ball bearing company, and that is exactly what it was meant for. The Swedish bearing maker SKF formed a company called VOLVO in 1915 to make bearings for the motor industry. By 1920 it had gone idle.

Two SKF men gave it a second life. Assar Gabrielsson was SKF’s sales manager, an economist who found the money. Gustaf Larson was an engineer who had trained in Coventry, England, and did the design work. They began talking seriously about building cars in the summer of 1924. In August 1926 the decision was made, and SKF reactivated the dormant company, providing factory premises on Hisingen in Gothenburg along with guarantees and credit.

On 14 April 1927, a Maundy Thursday, the first series-built car rolled out of the factory. Volvo puts it simply: Volvo was born that day.

Jakob and the diagonal bar

That first car was the ÖV4, short for “open car, 4 cylinders”. It was a four-door tourer with a 2 litre engine, and the first production cars came only in dark blue with black fenders. Its nickname, Jakob, came from one of the trial prototypes, finished on 25 July, the name-day of Jakob in Sweden.

Jakob also introduced Volvo’s most recognisable detail. According to Volvo Cars, the diagonal band across the radiator first appeared on the first car in April 1927. It wasn’t styling. It was a technical necessity, there to hold the chrome badge in place. Over time it became a decorative feature, and it still runs across the grille of every Volvo. According to World of Volvo, the brand’s experience centre in Gothenburg, the classic emblem with its slanted diagonal and iron symbol was designed by Helmer MasOlle.

Mars, weapons and Swedish iron

You probably know the circle with an arrow pointing up and to the right as the male symbol. Volvo knows it as something else. The company describes it as the ancient chemical symbol for iron, adopted as the company’s logotype when VOLVO was reactivated in 1926.

The sign is older than chemistry. In the Roman Empire it stood for the planet Mars, and with it the god of war and the masculine gender. Because most weapons were made of iron, it became the symbol for that metal, and later the emblem of the iron industry, especially in Sweden. Volvo says the badge was chosen to call up the honoured traditions of Swedish iron: steel and strength, with properties such as safety, quality and durability. The VOLVO name itself was written in a typeface called Egyptian.

In 2006 Volvo Cars announced that the iron symbol was making, in its words, a grand comeback, moving to the centre of the grille, with a slightly modernised version also used in the middle of the steering wheel and on the wheel hubs.

One name, two companies, a flatter mark

Here is a twist many drivers miss. When AB Volvo sold Volvo Car Corporation to Ford in 1999, the deal came with a condition: the Volvo name would keep being used by both the car company and the wider Volvo Group, the trucks and buses side. The iron mark belongs to both.

That is why the 2021 update was a joint project. In September 2021 the design teams of Volvo Group and Volvo Car Group presented a flat, two-dimensional Iron Mark, replacing the 3D version used since 2014. The new mark is all black, with a slimmer circle and no banner across the middle, and comes with a spread version of the wordmark. Volvo Group said the aim was to modernise, unify and optimise the brand for the digital landscape. On new Volvo cars it appears in the centre of the steering wheel and on the wheel hubs.

Safety cars wearing the iron sign

Volvo’s founders were obsessed with quality from the very first car. Over the decades that obsession turned into a reputation for safety, and you can follow it model by model.

Landmark Volvos, decade by decade

• 1927: ÖV4. The first Volvo, an open tourer with a four-cylinder engine, built on Hisingen in Gothenburg.
• 1944: PV 444. Unveiled in Stockholm on 1 September 1944. Within two weeks, 2,300 people had placed orders.
• 1959: PV 544 and Amazon. Volvo became the first carmaker to fit the three-point safety belt as standard, invented by its engineer Nils Bohlin, and shared the patent with all carmakers.
• 1976: 240. The US government bought 24 of them for crash testing and chose the car as the benchmark for safety standards for new cars.
• 1991: 850. Launched with four world-firsts, including a transverse five-cylinder engine and Side Impact Protection, and the first of Volvo’s larger models with front-wheel drive.
• 2002: XC90. Volvo’s first SUV, which the company says redefined the segment for big SUVs.

Nils Bohlin came to Volvo in 1958 from Saab, where he had worked on safety equipment for pilots. After the Ford years, Volvo Cars changed hands again: on 2 August 2010 Geely‘s parent company, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, completed its purchase of Volvo Car Corporation, with headquarters and manufacturing kept in Sweden and Belgium. For more on how badges like this are put together, see how car logos are designed.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Volvo logo mean?

It is the ancient chemical symbol for iron, a circle with an arrow pointing diagonally up and to the right. Volvo chose it to evoke the Swedish iron industry and qualities such as strength, safety, quality and durability.

Is the Volvo logo the male symbol?

It is the same sign. Volvo explains that it stood for the planet Mars, the Roman god of war and the masculine gender, and became the symbol for iron because most weapons were made of it. Volvo uses it as the symbol for iron.

Why is there a diagonal bar on a Volvo grille?

It first appeared on the first car in April 1927 to hold the chrome badge in place. It later became a decorative feature and is still on the grille of every Volvo.

What does the name Volvo mean?

Volvo is Latin for “I roll”, from the verb volvere. SKF first used the name in 1915 for a company making bearings.

When did Volvo get its flat logo?

In September 2021, when Volvo Group and Volvo Car Group presented a flat, all black version of the Iron Mark that replaced the 3D design from 2014.

Iron, Latin and a diagonal bar

Founded

1927

Founder

Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson

Country

Sweden

Headquarters

Gothenburg, Sweden

Parent company

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group

Current emblem

The Iron Mark, the ancient symbol for iron, in a flat all black version introduced in 2021

Known for

Car safety and the three-point seat belt

Website

Official website ↗

More Swedish car brands

• Koenigsegg
• Saab
• Scania