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111-758: Volvo Car AB , trading as Volvo Cars ( Swedish : Volvo personvagnar , styled VOLVO in the company's logo) is a Swedish multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles . Volvo is headquartered in Torslanda , Gothenburg . The company manufactures SUVs , station wagons , and sedans . The company's main marketing revolves around safety and its Swedish heritage and design. Volvo Cars has been separate from its former parent conglomerate and producer of heavy trucks , buses , and construction equipment (among others) AB Volvo since 1999 when AB Volvo sold its automobile division Volvo Cars to Ford Motor Company for US$ 6.47 billion. On 28 March 2010, Ford sold Volvo Cars at
222-725: A North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family , spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland . It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it the fourth most spoken Germanic language , and the first among its type in the Nordic countries overall. Swedish, like the other Nordic languages , is a descendant of Old Norse , the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during
333-445: A common gender with the definite suffix -en and the definite article den , in contrast with the neuter gender equivalents -et and det . The verb system was also more complex: it included subjunctive and imperative moods and verbs were conjugated according to person as well as number . By the 16th century, the case and gender systems of the colloquial spoken language and the profane literature had been largely reduced to
444-477: A guttural or "French R" pronunciation in the South Swedish dialects ; consequently, these dialects lack retroflex consonants . Swedish is a stress-timed language, where the time intervals between stressed syllables are equal. However, when casually spoken, it tends to be syllable-timed . Any stressed syllable carries one of two tones , which gives Swedish much of its characteristic sound. Prosody
555-408: A Volvo spokesman, denied that the company's vehicles were any less safe than the institute's top-rated vehicles, adding that It's just a philosophy on safety that is different from building cars to pass these kinds of tests. In 2006, Volvo's Personal Car Communicator (PCC) remote control was launched as an optional feature with the all-new Volvo S80 . Before a driver enters their car, they can review
666-537: A change from tauþr into tuþr . Moreover, the øy diphthong changed into a long, close ø , as in the Old Norse word for "island". By the end of the period, these innovations had affected most of the Runic Swedish-speaking area as well, with the exception of the dialects spoken north and east of Mälardalen where the diphthongs still exist in remote areas. Old Swedish (Swedish: fornsvenska )
777-476: A conversation. Due to the close relation between the Scandinavian languages, a considerable proportion of speakers of Danish and especially Norwegian are able to understand Swedish. There is considerable migration between the Nordic countries , but owing to the similarity between the cultures and languages (with the exception of Finnish ), expatriates generally assimilate quickly and do not stand out as
888-747: A group. According to the 2000 United States Census , some 67,000 people over the age of five were reported as Swedish speakers, though without any information on the degree of language proficiency. Similarly, there were 16,915 reported Swedish speakers in Canada from the 2001 census. Although there are no certain numbers, some 40,000 Swedes are estimated to live in the London area in the United Kingdom. Outside Sweden and Finland, there are about 40,000 active learners enrolled in Swedish language courses. In
999-598: A joint venture with Geely. In 2023, Volvo removed conventional engines as an option, meaning mild hybrids are the base engine option in the US. Volvo Cars owns 18% of Polestar and 50% of NOVO Energy ( electric vehicle batteries ), 100% of Zenseact (AD and ADAS software), and 100% of HaleyTek (Android-based infotainment systems). As of 2022, Volvo Cars has production plants in Torslanda in Sweden, Ridgeville, South Carolina in
1110-629: A large proportion of the remaining 100,000 in the Scandinavian countries, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia. Over three million people speak Swedish as a second language, with about 2,410,000 of those in Finland. According to a survey by the European Commission , 44% of respondents from Finland who did not have Swedish as a native language considered themselves to be proficient enough in Swedish to hold
1221-753: A loss to Geely Holding for $ 1.8 billion; the deal closed in August 2010. Volvo Cars was publicly listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm stock exchange in 2021, though Geely Holding still retains majority ownership. Volvo Cars and AB Volvo share the Volvo logo, and cooperate in running the Volvo Museum . In March 2021, Volvo Cars announced that it would be a fully electric brand by 2030, with vehicles sold exclusively online. In June 2021, Volvo Cars and Swedish battery developer and manufacturer Northvolt announced
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#17327915907741332-425: A more abstract sense, such as that set of fish; while fisken means "the fish". In certain cases, the definite form indicates possession, e. g., jag måste tvätta hår et ("I must wash my hair"). Adjectives are inflected in two declensions – indefinite and definite – and they must match the noun they modify in gender and number. The indefinite neuter and plural forms of an adjective are usually created by adding
1443-658: A new plant to build the Volvo 740 , which the company said required more space for assembly than the existing factory could provide. The new C$ 13.5-million plant, located in the Bayers Lake Industrial Park , began operating in late 1987, and achieved full production in April 1988. In 1993, the Halifax operation celebrated its 30th anniversary. To mark the occasion 940s built at the facility were affixed with
1554-435: A noun. They can double as demonstrative pronouns or demonstrative determiners when used with adverbs such as här ("here") or där ("there") to form den/det här (can also be "denna/detta") ("this"), de här (can also be "dessa") ("these"), den/det där ("that"), and de där ("those"). For example, den där fisken means "that fish" and refers to a specific fish; den fisken is less definite and means "that fish" in
1665-536: A shared ownership of Volvo Cars, as part of a larger consortium. Other rumored candidates to purchase Volvo Cars included BMW AG of Germany, Investor AB of Sweden, Chinese investors, and Russian investors. Although it was rumoured that Volkswagen would buy Volvo Cars, and despite initial denials, the company Geely Holding Group was ultimately selected to take over the Swedish automaker. Geely Holding allegedly bid about US$ 1.5 billion to take over Volvo, with Goldman Sachs investing HK$ 2.59 billion (US$ 334 million) in
1776-519: A special roundel affixed to the rear quarter window. While the plant was very successful, on September 9, 1998 Volvo decided to close the Halifax plant and end its 225 jobs, citing globalization and NAFTA as two of the reasons. The last Volvo was built in Canada on 18 December 1998. The Bayer's Lake plant building at 115 Chain Lake Drive still stands. Shortly after the closure announcement
1887-636: A special branch of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland has official status as the regulatory body for Swedish in Finland. Among its highest priorities is to maintain intelligibility with the language spoken in Sweden. It has published Finlandssvensk ordbok , a dictionary about the differences between Swedish in Finland and Sweden. From the 13th to 20th century, there were Swedish-speaking communities in Estonia , particularly on
1998-442: A suffix ( -t or -a ) to the common form of the adjective, e. g., en grön stol (a green chair), ett grönt hus (a green house), and gröna stolar ("green chairs"). The definite form of an adjective is identical to the indefinite plural form, e. g., den gröna stolen ("the green chair"), det gröna huset ("the green house"), and de gröna stolarna ("the green chairs"). Swedish pronouns are similar to those of English. Besides
2109-413: A village, Gammalsvenskby ("Old Swedish Village"). A few elderly people in the village still speak a Swedish dialect and observe the holidays of the Swedish calendar, although their dialect is most likely facing extinction. From 1918 to 1940, when Estonia was independent, the small Swedish community was well treated. Municipalities with a Swedish majority, mainly found along the coast, used Swedish as
2220-544: Is Latin for 'I roll') was first registered by SKF on 11 May 1915 with the intention to use it for a special series of ball bearing for the American market but it was never used for this purpose (however in the application for the trademark, it was also designated for the purpose of automobiles ). The SKF trademark as it looks today was used instead for all the SKF-products. Some pre-series of Volvo-bearings stamped with
2331-892: Is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages . In the established classification, it belongs to the East Scandinavian languages , together with Danish , separating it from the West Scandinavian languages , consisting of Faroese , Icelandic , and Norwegian . However, more recent analyses divide the North Germanic languages into two groups: Insular Scandinavian (Faroese and Icelandic), and Continental Scandinavian (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish), based on mutual intelligibility due to heavy influence of East Scandinavian (particularly Danish) on Norwegian during
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#17327915907742442-481: Is generally seen as adding specific Central Swedish features to the new Bible. Though it might seem as if the Bible translation set a very powerful precedent for orthographic standards, spelling actually became more inconsistent during the remainder of the century. It was not until the 17th century that spelling began to be discussed, around the time when the first grammars were written. Capitalization during this time
2553-538: Is marked primarily through suffixes (endings), complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles . The prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a comparatively large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative , a highly variable consonant phoneme . Swedish nouns and adjectives are declined in genders as well as number . Nouns are of common gender ( en form) or neuter gender ( ett form). The gender determines
2664-568: Is often one of the most noticeable differences between dialects. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages , V2 , which means that the finite verb (V) appears in the second position (2) of a declarative main clause . Swedish morphology is similar to English; that is, words have comparatively few inflections . Swedish has two genders and is generally seen to have two grammatical cases – nominative and genitive (except for pronouns that, as in English, also are inflected in
2775-638: Is one of the official languages of the European Union , and one of the working languages of the Nordic Council . Under the Nordic Language Convention , citizens of the Nordic countries speaking Swedish have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable for interpretation or translation costs. The Swedish Language Council ( Språkrådet )
2886-475: Is termed nusvenska (lit., "Now-Swedish") in linguistics, and started in the last decades of the 19th century. It saw a democratization of the language with a less formal written form that approached the spoken one. The growth of a public school system also led to the evolution of so-called boksvenska (literally, "book Swedish"), especially among the working classes, where spelling to some extent influenced pronunciation, particularly in official contexts. With
2997-527: Is the predominant language; in 19 municipalities , 16 of which are located in Åland , Swedish is the sole official language. Åland county is an autonomous region of Finland. According to a rough estimation, as of 2010 there were up to 300,000 Swedish-speakers living outside Sweden and Finland. The largest populations were in the United States (up to 100,000), the UK, Spain and Germany (c. 30,000 each) and
3108-455: Is the regulator of Swedish in Sweden but does not attempt to enforce control of the language, as for instance the Académie française does for French . However, many organizations and agencies require the use of the council's publication Svenska skrivregler in official contexts, with it otherwise being regarded as a de facto orthographic standard. Among the many organizations that make up
3219-407: Is the sole official language of Åland (an autonomous province under the sovereignty of Finland), where the vast majority of the 26,000 inhabitants speak Swedish as a first language. In Finland as a whole, Swedish is one of the two "national" languages, with the same official status as Finnish (spoken by the majority) at the state level and an official language in some municipalities . Swedish
3330-631: Is the term used for the medieval Swedish language. The start date is usually set to 1225 since this is the year that Västgötalagen ("the Västgöta Law") is believed to have been compiled for the first time. It is among the most important documents of the period written in Latin script and the oldest Swedish law codes . Old Swedish is divided into äldre fornsvenska (1225–1375) and yngre fornsvenska (1375–1526), "older" and "younger" Old Swedish. Important outside influences during this time came with
3441-465: The Gustav Vasa Bible , a translation deemed so successful and influential that, with revisions incorporated in successive editions, it remained the most common Bible translation until 1917. The main translators were Laurentius Andreæ and the brothers Laurentius and Olaus Petri . The Vasa Bible is often considered to be a reasonable compromise between old and new; while not adhering to
Volvo Cars - Misplaced Pages Continue
3552-554: The Blind Spot Information System (BLIS), which detects vehicles entering the vehicle's blind spot with a side-view-mirror-mounted camera, and alerts the driver with a light. That year also saw Volvos sold in all markets equipped with side-marker lights and daytime running lights. Also, since 2004 all Volvo models except for the coupes ( C70 and C30 ) are available with an all-wheel drive system developed by Haldex Traction of Sweden. In 2005, Volvo presented
3663-508: The Dutch government had participated in a joint venture at the former DAF plant in Born , Netherlands since 1991). Ford saw advantages in acquiring a profitable prestige mid-size European automobile manufacturer, well renowned for its safety aspects, as an addition to its Premier Automotive Group. The buyout of Volvo Cars was announced on 28 January 1999, and in the following year the acquisition
3774-467: The French vous (see T-V distinction ). Ni wound up being used as a slightly less familiar form of du , the singular second person pronoun, used to address people of lower social status. With the liberalization and radicalization of Swedish society in the 1950s and 1960s, these class distinctions became less important, and du became the standard, even in formal and official contexts. Though
3885-478: The Guinness World record for the fastest time around the world in a Halifax-built Volvo 245 DL nicknamed Red Cloud. Ken Langley and Gary Sowerby completed the feat in just 74 days, 1 hour and 11 minutes, smashing the previous record by over a month. Shortly before the plant's closure, popular Canadian comedy/satire show This Hour Has 22 Minutes and correspondent Mary Walsh filmed an entire segment at
3996-866: The Nasdaq Stockholm stock exchange in October 2021. In early 2021 the company announced plans to completely stop selling fossil fuel-based cars by 2030, switching to electric-powered cars. The plan includes phasing out fossil-fuel-only cars by 2025, manufacturing only electric cars or hybrids. In 2021, Volvo Cars set up a joint venture with Geely for its hybrid engine operations. The new business, Aurobay will develop and market powertrain solutions, and as of 2022, includes Volvo Cars' engine plants in Skövde and Zhangjiakou , together with its powertrain research and development operations in Gothenburg . In June 2023, Ukraine blacklisted Geely due to its refusal to leave
4107-632: The Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) , and re-introduced an expanded -90 series of models, including the S90 sedan and Volvo V90 wagon in addition to a redesigned XC90 SUV. In 2015, Volvo sold more than half a million cars for the first time in its 89-year history. Volvo reported strong sales from all three core global regions. Sales in Europe rose 10% in 2015 to 269k, representing over 50% of total global volume. Volvo's revival in
4218-639: The Uddevalla plant in Sweden was opened, which was jointly operated by Volvo Car Group and Pininfarina Sverige AB from 2005 to 2013. In the early 1970s, Volvo acquired the passenger car division of the Dutch company DAF , and marketed their small cars as Volvos before releasing the Dutch-built Volvo 340 , which went on to be a big seller in the UK market in the 1980s. In 1986 Volvo sold 113,267 cars in
4329-518: The United States , particularly during the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a significant Swedish-speaking immigrant population. This was notably true in states like Minnesota , where many Swedish immigrants settled. By 1940, approximately 6% of Minnesota's population spoke Swedish. Although the use of Swedish has significantly declined, it is not uncommon to find older generations and communities that still retain some use and knowledge of
4440-585: The Viking Age . It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish , although the degree of mutual intelligibility is dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. Standard Swedish , spoken by most Swedes , is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century, and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties and rural dialects still exist,
4551-538: The Volvo PV544 was introduced a year later. Halifax built 123 GT models like the 122 S were rebadged as "Canadian GT"s. Units produced at the plant typically came without auxiliary lights and had only one side-view mirror, but came with a limited-slip differential and hazard flashers. Halifax built Canadian GTs were available in colours such as light green (91), light blue (95), and dark blue (96) and are often seen with identification codes 5145 or 5324. For three years
Volvo Cars - Misplaced Pages Continue
4662-546: The Volvo XC40 for a monthly payment that includes insurance and maintenance. Care by Volvo is offered in several European markets, such as Germany, the UK and Italy, as well as in the U.S. In February 2020, Volvo and Geely announced that they had started formal discussions about a merger of business. Geely had owned 100% of Volvo, but Volvo Cars had largely been allowed autonomy with its resources. These merger talks were later halted, and 18% of Volvo Cars shares were listed on
4773-581: The nationalist ideas that emerged during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the languages have separate orthographies , dictionaries, grammars, and regulatory bodies. Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are thus from a linguistic perspective more accurately described as a dialect continuum of Scandinavian (North Germanic), and some of the dialects, such as those on the border between Norway and Sweden, especially parts of Bohuslän , Dalsland , western Värmland , western Dalarna , Härjedalen , Jämtland , and Scania , could be described as intermediate dialects of
4884-410: The object form) – although it is debated if the genitive in Swedish should be seen as a genitive case or just the nominative plus the so-called genitive s , then seen as a clitic . Swedish has two grammatical numbers – plural and singular . Adjectives have discrete comparative and superlative forms and are also inflected according to gender, number and definiteness . The definiteness of nouns
4995-399: The 1950s, when their use was removed from all official recommendations. A very significant change in Swedish occurred in the late 1960s, with the so-called du-reformen . Previously, the proper way to address people of the same or higher social status had been by title and surname. The use of herr ("Mr." or "Sir"), fru ("Mrs." or "Ma'am") or fröken ("Miss") was considered
5106-435: The 740/940 (from 1982 on) in the 15% better than average category, the second from the top category. In 2005, when the American non-profit, non-governmental Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released its first annual "Top Safety Picks" vehicles list, none of Volvo's offered vehicles in the US were included on the list. According to Russ Rader, a spokesman for IIHS, Volvo lagged behind its competitors. Dan Johnston,
5217-485: The 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse , evolved into Old Norse. This language underwent more changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, which resulted in the appearance of two similar dialects: Old West Norse (Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland) and Old East Norse (Denmark and Sweden). The dialects of Old East Norse spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish , while
5328-539: The C70 featured a head-protecting airbag deploying upwards from the door, avoiding this problem. It has been stated by many testing authorities that side head protecting curtain airbags can reduce the risk of death in a side impact by up to 40% and brain injury by up to 55%, as well as protect occupants during a rollover. In 1998, Volvo introduced its Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), a safety device to prevent injury to front seat users during collisions. In 2002, Volvo pioneered
5439-471: The Modern Swedish period were the gradual assimilation of several different consonant clusters into the fricative [ʃ] and later into [ɧ] . There was also the gradual softening of [ɡ] and [k] into [j] and the fricative [ɕ] before front vowels . The velar fricative [ɣ] was also transformed into the corresponding plosive [ɡ] . The period that includes Swedish as it is spoken today
5550-717: The PAG, the company significantly expanded its range of vehicles. Ford, in turn, attempted with little market success to leverage synergies from Volvo, namely by sharing a re-engineered platform and many safety features from the Volvo S80 with the Ford Five Hundred (et al.). After Ford sold Jaguar Land Rover to Tata Motors of India in 2008, the company initially decided to keep Volvo Cars despite mounting losses and major economic downturns. Ford decided to restructure plans for Volvo Cars, pushing it further upmarket, alongside
5661-727: The Russian market. In this regard, the Swedish authorities began to discuss the possibility of a boycott of Volvo Cars. The discussion was initiated by the Ministry of Defense of Sweden. In November 2023, Volvo Cars announced the launch of an Energy Solutions business, beginning with a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) pilot programme in Gothenburg along with local power utility Goteborg Energi. In 2024, Volvo Cars scrapped its goal of becoming fully electric by 2030, adjusting its strategy due to industry challenges. In November 2024, Volvo Cars announced
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#17327915907745772-601: The Swedish Language Council, the Swedish Academy (established 1786) is arguably the most influential. Its primary instruments are the spelling dictionary Svenska Akademiens ordlista ( SAOL , currently in its 14th edition) and the dictionary Svenska Akademiens Ordbok , in addition to various books on grammar, spelling and manuals of style. Although the dictionaries have a prescriptive element, they mainly describe current usage. In Finland,
5883-557: The US gained momentum, with sales up 24% in 2015, while China was flat amid a challenging sales environment, but sales were up 11% in the fourth quarter. In July 2017, the automaker announced that beginning in 2019, all of its new models will include an electric motor in their powertrain. Implementation of the announcement could mean Volvo becoming the first manufacturer to end production of internal combustion -only vehicles, with all vehicles hybrid or electric powered. Between 2019 and 2021, Volvo plans to launch three electric cars under
5994-477: The US marking a record year for the company. The appearance of Japanese brands like Acura and Lexus and the growing popularity of Subaru station wagons in subsequent years meant the loss of a significant market share for Volvo, one which they have never regained. Volvo's long-time CEO Pehr G. Gyllenhammar saw early on that Volvo was too small to survive in the future, and attempted several times to merge with other manufacturers. Volvo nearly merged with Saab in
6105-558: The United States, Ghent in Belgium, and Daqing in China. Volvo was founded upon the concept of safety in 1927, in Gothenburg , Sweden: Cars are driven by people. The guiding principle behind everything we make at Volvo, therefore, is and must remain, safety. The company was created as a subsidiary to SKF . Assar Gabrielsson was appointed managing director and Gustav Larson technical manager . The trademark Volvo (which
6216-426: The Volvo 745 was recalled as the front seatbelt mounts could break in a collision. In 1998, Volvo installed a head-protecting airbag, which was made standard in all new models as well as some existing models. The IC head-protecting airbag was not available on the 1997 C70 since the initial design deployed the airbag from the roof, and the C70, being a convertible, could not accommodate such an airbag. A later version of
6327-661: The Volvo Museum, which opened in a permanent location in Arendal at Hisingen on 30 May 1995. For several years, the collection had been housed at the Blue Hangar, at the then closed Torslanda Airport . In 1999, Volvo Group decided to sell its automobile manufacturing business in order to concentrate on commercial vehicles, and to buy a 5% stake in Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors (with which Volvo Group along with
6438-532: The Volvo brand and two more under the Polestar performance brand. Volvo is one of the proponents of autonomous vehicles. On 20 November 2017, Uber announced that it planned to buy up to 24,000 Volvo cars designed to accept autonomous technology between 2019 and 2021. This non-binding intent includes a plan for Uber Advanced Technologies Group to design and build the self-driving system in the XC90 SUV. In 2016,
6549-502: The administrative language and Swedish-Estonian culture saw an upswing. However, most Swedish-speaking people fled to Sweden before the end of World War II , that is, before the invasion of Estonia by the Soviet army in 1944. Only a handful of speakers remain. Swedish dialects have either 17 or 18 vowel phonemes , 9 long and 9 short. As in the other Germanic languages, including English, most long vowels are phonetically paired with one of
6660-419: The board. His board members include vice-chairman Hans-Olov Olsson , a former president and chief executive of Volvo Cars, and Håkan Samuelsson , formerly chief executive of MAN . Under Geely ownership, Volvo has refocused its product lineup. The manufacturer has developed a new line of 3- and 4-cylinder diesel and petrol engines while eliminating larger engines. It has also developed a new vehicle platform ,
6771-429: The brand name 'Volvo' were manufactured but never released to the market, and it was not until 1927 that the trademark was used again, now as a trademark and company name for an automobile. The first Volvo car left the assembly line on 14 April 1927, and was called Volvo ÖV 4 . After this the young company produced closed top and cabriolet vehicles, which were designed to hold strong in the Swedish climate and terrain. In
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#17327915907746882-504: The colloquial spoken language of its day, it was not overly conservative in its use of archaic forms. It was a major step towards a more consistent Swedish orthography . It established the use of the vowels "å", "ä", and "ö", and the spelling "ck" in place of "kk", distinguishing it clearly from the Danish Bible, perhaps intentionally, given the ongoing rivalry between the countries. All three translators came from central Sweden, which
6993-466: The companies announced that they planned to collaborate on the design and financing of cars with self-driving systems. Such vehicles require a different type of steering and braking mechanism, as well as sensors. The CEO of Volvo Cars, Håkan Samuelsson, made this comment in an interview: "We get support developing this car ... It’s also a big commercial deal." Also in 2017, Volvo announced a vehicle subscription offering called Care by Volvo , which offers
7104-614: The company's history outside of Sweden, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada . In 1964, Volvo opened its Torslanda plant in Sweden, which currently is one of its largest production sites (chiefly large cars and SUVs). Then in 1965, the Ghent , Belgium plant was opened, which is the company's second largest production site. This was also Volvo's first location producing cars within the European Economic Community . In 1989,
7215-403: The declension of the adjectives . For example, the word fisk ("fish") is a noun of common gender ( en fisk ) and can have the following forms: The definite singular form of a noun is created by adding a suffix ( -en , -n , -et or -t ), depending on its gender and if the noun ends in a vowel or not. The definite articles den , det , and de are used for variations to the definitiveness of
7326-430: The development of a virtual crash test dummy representing a midsized pregnant female. It was named Linda and was modeled in her 36th week of pregnancy to analyze the effects of high-speed impact on the womb, placenta, and fetus. Collaborating with Chalmers University of Technology , they also crafted a computer model of an average-sized female to advance their Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS). In 2004, Volvo introduced
7437-541: The dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish . The dialects are described as "runic" because the main body of text appears in the runic alphabet . Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, which had only 16 letters. Because the number of runes was limited, some runes were used for a range of phonemes , such as
7548-470: The doors and into the safety cage. In 1994, to add to its SIPS, Volvo was the first to introduce side airbags and installed them as standard equipment in all models from 1995. At the start of the 1995 model year, side impact protection airbags were standard on high trim-level Volvo 850s, and optional on other 850s. By the middle of the production year, they were standard on all 850s. In model year 1995, SIPS airbags became standard on all Volvo models. In 1995,
7659-663: The facility, also the first Volvo produced outside of Europe, is a black 1963 Volvo 122 B18 currently on permanent display at the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry in Stellarton, Nova Scotia . In 1969, 26 Volvo bodies intended for the plant were dumped into the Bedford Basin after incurring severe water damage in transit across the Atlantic Ocean on a container ship. In 1980, two Canadians broke
7770-489: The firm establishment of the Christian church and various monastic orders, introducing many Greek and Latin loanwords. With the rise of Hanseatic power in the late 13th and early 14th century, Middle Low German became very influential. The Hanseatic league provided Swedish commerce and administration with a large number of Low German -speaking immigrants. Many became quite influential members of Swedish medieval society, and brought terms from their native languages into
7881-407: The first rear-facing child seat in 1964 and introduced its own booster seat in 1978. In 1991, the 960 introduced the first three-point seat belt for the middle of the rear seat and a child safety cushion integrated in the middle armrest. Also in 1991, it introduced the Side Impact Protection System (SIPS) on the 700 , 940 / 960 and 850 models, which channels the force of a side impact away from
7992-472: The holding company. Ford Motor Company offered Volvo Cars for sale in December 2008, after suffering losses that year. On 28 October 2009, Ford confirmed that, after considering several offers, the preferred buyer of Volvo Cars was Geely Holding Group, the parent of motor manufacturer Geely Automobile . On 23 December 2009, Ford confirmed the terms of the sale to Geely had been settled. A definitive agreement
8103-430: The industrialization and urbanization of Sweden well under way by the last decades of the 19th century, a new breed of authors made their mark on Swedish literature . Many scholars, politicians and other public figures had a great influence on the emerging national language, among them prolific authors like the poet Gustaf Fröding , Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf and radical writer and playwright August Strindberg . It
8214-510: The intention to establish a 50/50 joint venture consisting of a battery gigafactory and R&D (research and development) center. In December 2021, it was revealed the battery R&D center would be located in Gothenburg. In February 2022, Gothenburg was also chosen as the location for the battery gigafactory. During 2021 and 2022, Volvo Cars transferred its hybrid engine research and production capabilities in Skövde and Zhangjiakou to Aurobay , in
8325-614: The islands (e. g., Hiiumaa , Vormsi , Ruhnu ; in Swedish, known as Dagö , Ormsö , Runö , respectively) along the coast of the Baltic , communities that today have all disappeared. The Swedish-speaking minority was represented in parliament , and entitled to use their native language in parliamentary debates. After the loss of Estonia to the Russian Empire in the early 18th century, around 1,000 Estonian Swedish speakers were forced to march to southern Ukraine , where they founded
8436-484: The language, particularly in rural communities like Lindström and Scandia . Swedish is the official main language of Sweden. Swedish is also one of two official languages of Finland. In Sweden, it has long been used in local and state government, and most of the educational system, but remained only a de facto primary language with no official status in law until 2009. A bill was proposed in 2005 that would have made Swedish an official language, but failed to pass by
8547-490: The last millennium and divergence from both Faroese and Icelandic. By many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. However, because of several hundred years of sometimes quite intense rivalry between Denmark and Sweden, including a long series of wars from the 16th to 18th centuries, and
8658-595: The late seventies, while in 1978 an aborted affair would have seen the Norwegian state take over 40 percent of the company. In return, Volvo would receive 200 million SEK and a ten percent concession in the Oseberg oil field . Major institutional actors in Sweden opposed the deal and blocked it. A deal to merge with Renault was blocked in 1993, mainly opposed by a Swedish stockholders' association. A collection of Volvo's most important historical vehicles are now housed in
8769-448: The lower end of Mercedes and BMW sedans, wagons, and SUV crossovers. The outcome was the luxurious second generation Volvo S80 and the new small premium crossover Volvo XC60 . When the global economic crisis of 2008 threatened the US automakers, Swedish authorities became concerned about the fate of Volvo, should Ford file for bankruptcy. These concerns mounted after repeated mass-layoffs at Volvo. In December 2008, Ford announced that it
8880-577: The narrowest possible margin (145–147) due to a pairing-off failure. A proposal for a broader language law, designating Swedish as the main language of the country and bolstering the status of the minority languages, was submitted by an expert committee to the Swedish Ministry of Culture in March 2008. It was subsequently enacted by the Riksdag , and entered into effect on 1 July 2009. Swedish
8991-421: The national standard languages. Swedish pronunciations also vary greatly from one region to another, a legacy of the vast geographic distances and historical isolation. Even so, the vocabulary is standardized to a level that make dialects within Sweden virtually fully mutually intelligible. East Germanic languages West Germanic languages Icelandic Faroese Norwegian Danish Swedish In
9102-424: The north. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the other dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é , as in stæinn to sténn "stone". This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain and the later stin . There was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr "dead". This change is shown in runic inscriptions as
9213-441: The only acceptable way to begin conversation with strangers of unknown occupation, academic title or military rank. The fact that the listener should preferably be referred to in the third person tended to further complicate spoken communication between members of society. In the early 20th century, an unsuccessful attempt was made to replace the insistence on titles with ni —the standard second person plural pronoun)—analogous to
9324-402: The original Germanic three- gender system. Nouns , adjectives , pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases; besides the extant nominative , there were also the genitive (later possessive ), dative and accusative . The gender system resembled that of modern German , having masculine, feminine and neuter genders. The masculine and feminine genders were later merged into
9435-544: The pier. The new plant enabled production to exceed 8,000 cars per year. Cars were shipped from Sweden in CKD form, then assembled at the facility. Production on average at the Dartmouth Plant was about 15 cars per day. At the new facility, production increased to over 36 cars a day. And, in 1974, production at the plant increased to more than 12,000 vehicles a year. In 1986, Volvo Canada announced plans to construct
9546-484: The plant became the focus of a dispute between Volvo and the Canadian Auto Workers Union . On 21 October 1998, thirty employees blockaded the plant after Volvo refused to pay what the union considered adequate severance pay and retirement benefits to the plant's employees. After several days, Volvo backed down and agreed to the union's payment specifications. The first Volvo produced at
9657-497: The plant operated out of this harbourfront facility (an old sugar processing plant) located on Halifax Harbour's Eastern Passage . On 14 April 1967, a replacement plant at Pier 9 in Halifax was opened. The project was financed by provincial Crown corporation Industrial Estates Limited , which leased the harbourfront site from the National Harbours Board , providing the Volvo plant with its own unloading space on
9768-479: The plant to bypass hefty North American import tariffs on foreign goods and to capitalize on the newly signed Canadian/American Auto Pact . The plant was operated by Volvo Canada Limited (now Volvo Cars of Canada Corporation) in Toronto, Ontario , and bridged the gap between Volvo of North America ( Rockleigh, New Jersey ), Volvo headquarters and the flagship Torslanda plant in Gothenburg . The first iteration of
9879-669: The plant was opened in June 1963 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The premises were leased from Atlantic Sugar Refineries (now Lantic Sugar ). The Halifax plant was unlike any other assembly plant Volvo was operating at the time. This was mainly due to the plant's trademark team system that assembled the entire vehicle at one station, which was extensively used later at Volvo Torslanda Assembly and then Volvo Kalmar Assembly . In 1966, annual production totaled over 3,700 cars. Volvo 122 S , 123 GT and 122 B18s were assembled in Halifax initially,
9990-548: The profitable American market. The first Volvos arrived in the United States in 1955, after the hardware wholesaler Leo Hirsh began distributing cars in California. Later, Texas was added, and in 1956, Volvo themselves began importing cars to the US. North America has consistently provided Volvo with their main outlet since. In 1963, Volvo opened the Volvo Halifax Assembly plant, the first assembly plant in
10101-480: The reform was not an act of any centralized political decree, but rather the result of sweeping change in social attitudes, it was completed in just a few years, from the late 1960s to early 1970s. The use of ni as a polite form of address is sometimes encountered today in both the written and spoken language, particularly among older speakers. Swedish is the sole official national language of Sweden , and one of two in Finland (alongside Finnish ). As of 2006, it
10212-547: The registration application for Volvo logotype in 1927, they simply made a copy of the entire radiator for ÖV4, viewed from the front. The round logo with the arrow pointing to the right ( ♂ ) is the Greek alchemical symbol for iron . Presented in 1944, the Volvo PV444 passenger car only entered production in 1947. It was the smallest Volvo yet and became the most produced car that Volvo made, and spearheaded Volvo's move into
10323-468: The rune for the vowel u , which was also used for the vowels o , ø and y , and the rune for i , also used for e . From 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. The innovations spread unevenly from Denmark, creating a series of minor dialectal boundaries, or isoglosses , ranging from Zealand in the south to Norrland , Österbotten and northwestern Finland in
10434-498: The sale of its 30&% stake in Lynk & Co to Zeekr , at a price of RMB 5.4 billion. Volvo cars have long been marketed as safe and the company has stressed their historic reputation for solidity and reliability in marketing campaigns. Volvo uses high-tech safety systems as standard equipment in new vehicles. Prior to strong government safety regulation Volvo had been at the forefront of safety engineering. In 1944, laminated glass
10545-547: The second generation of Volvo C70 , which came with extra stiff door-mounted inflatable side curtains (the first of its kind in a convertible) dubbed 'DMIC'. Volvo's safety systems remained standard on all Volvo vehicles while under ownership of Ford Motor Company. Volvo had patented many of its safety innovations, including SIPS , WHIPS , ROPS , DSTC , and body structures. Some of these systems were fitted to other Ford and Premier Automotive Group vehicles in forms similar to those of Volvo systems. A 2005 Folksam report, put
10656-401: The security level and know whether they had set the alarm and if the car is locked. Additionally, a heartbeat sensor warns if someone is hiding inside the car. The S80 was also the first Volvo model to feature adaptive cruise control (ACC) with Collision Warning and Brake Support ( CWBS ). Swedish language Swedish ( endonym : svenska [ˈsvɛ̂nːska] ) is
10767-444: The short /e/ (transcribed ⟨ ɛ ⟩ in the chart below). There are 18 consonant phonemes, two of which, / ɧ / and /r/ , vary considerably in pronunciation depending on the dialect and social status of the speaker. In many dialects, sequences of /r/ (pronounced alveolarly) with a dental consonant result in retroflex consonants ; alveolarity of the pronunciation of /r/ is a precondition for this retroflexion. /r/ has
10878-428: The short vowels, and the pairs are such that the two vowels are of similar quality , but with the short vowel being slightly lower and slightly centralized. In contrast to e.g. Danish, which has only tense vowels, the short vowels are slightly more lax, but the tense vs. lax contrast is not nearly as pronounced as in English, German or Dutch. In many dialects, the short vowel sound pronounced [ɛ] or [æ] has merged with
10989-474: The subject in a clause, a trait that is restricted to North Germanic languages: Volvo Halifax Assembly The Volvo Halifax Assembly Plant located in Halifax , Nova Scotia was opened on 11 June 1963 by Prince Bertil . It was the second assembly plant Volvo opened outside of Sweden and the third non-domestic auto plant in North America after Fiat and Rolls-Royce . Volvo decided to open
11100-534: The two cases and two genders of modern Swedish. A transitional change of the Latin script in the Nordic countries was to spell the letter combination "ae" as æ – and sometimes as a' – though it varied between persons and regions. The combination "ao" was similarly rendered a , and "oe" became o . These three were later to evolve into the separate letters ä , å and ö . The first time the new letters were used in print
11211-517: The two natural genders han and hon ("he" and "she"), there are also the two grammatical genders den and det , usually termed common and neuter . In recent years, a gender-neutral pronoun hen has been introduced, particularly in literary Swedish. Unlike the nouns, pronouns have an additional object form, derived from the old dative form. Hon , for example, has the following nominative, possessive, and object forms: Swedish also uses third-person possessive reflexive pronouns that refer to
11322-439: The vocabulary. Besides a great number of loanwords for such areas as warfare, trade and administration, general grammatical suffixes and even conjunctions were imported. The League also brought a certain measure of influence from Danish (at the time Swedish and Danish were much more similar than today). Early Old Swedish was markedly different from the modern language in that it had a more complex case structure and also retained
11433-584: The written language is uniform and standardized . Swedish is the most widely spoken second language in Finland where its status is co- official language . Swedish was long spoken in parts of Estonia , although the current status of the Estonian Swedish speakers is almost extinct. It is also used in the Swedish diaspora , most notably in Oslo , Norway, with more than 50,000 Swedish residents. Swedish
11544-485: Was completed at a price of US$ 6.45 billion. As a result of the divestiture , the Volvo trademark was used by two separate companies: Volvo Group completed its 5% deal with Mitsubishi in November 1999, but sold its stake back to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in March 2001. Volvo Car Group was part of Ford Motor Company's Premier Automotive Group (PAG), along with Jaguar , Aston Martin and Land Rover . While part of
11655-440: Was considering selling Volvo Cars. Initially, a sale price of US$ 6 billion was reported. Ford said it was also looking into the possibility of spinning off Volvo as an independent company. The Swedish government was asked to look into a possible state ownership of Volvo, or a financial bailout for Volvo Cars and SAAB of GM. Former parent AB Volvo agreed to help Volvo cut costs through partnerships, and suggested taking part in
11766-484: Was during the 20th century that a common, standardized national language became available to all Swedes. The orthography finally stabilized and became almost completely uniform, with some minor deviations, by the time of the spelling reform of 1906. With the exception of plural forms of verbs and a slightly different syntax, particularly in the written language, the language was the same as the Swedish of today. The plural verb forms appeared decreasingly in formal writing into
11877-656: Was in Aff dyäffwlsens frästilse ("By the Devil's temptation") published by Johan Gerson in 1495. Modern Swedish (Swedish: nysvenska ) begins with the advent of the printing press and the European Reformation . After assuming power, the new monarch Gustav Vasa ordered a Swedish translation of the Bible . The New Testament was published in 1526, followed by a full Bible translation in 1541, usually referred to as
11988-455: Was introduced in the PV model. After Vattenfall engineers presented their pioneering work to Volvo in the 1950s, Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin invented and patented the modern three-point safety belt , which became standard on all Volvo cars in 1959, and then made this design patent open in the interest of safety and made it available to other car manufacturers for free. Additionally, Volvo developed
12099-523: Was not standardized. It depended on the authors and their background. Those influenced by German capitalized all nouns, while others capitalized more sparsely. It is also not always apparent which letters are capitalized owing to the Gothic or blackletter typeface that was used to print the Bible. This typeface was in use until the mid-18th century, when it was gradually replaced with a Latin typeface (often Antiqua ). Some important changes in sound during
12210-641: Was signed on 28 March 2010, for US$ 1.8 billion. The European Commission and China's Ministry of Commerce approved the deal on 6 and 29 July 2010, respectively. The deal closed on 2 August 2010 with Geely paying $ 1.3 billion cash and a $ 200 million note. Further payments are expected with a later price "true-up". It is the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese automaker. Stefan Jacoby , formerly chief executive of Volkswagen of America , became Volvo Car Group's president and chief executive on 16 August 2010, replacing Stephen Odell, who became chief executive of Ford Europe . Li Shufu became Volvo Cars' chairman of
12321-482: Was the sole native language of 83% of Swedish residents. In 2007, around 5.5% (c. 290,000) of the population of Finland were native speakers of Swedish, partially due to a decline following the Russian annexation of Finland after the Finnish War 1808–1809. The Fenno-Swedish - speaking minority is concentrated in the coastal areas and archipelagos of southern and western Finland. In some of these areas, Swedish
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