This is one of the first Volvo cars, the ÖV4, one of 205 cars that were produced between 1927 and 1929. It had a four-cylinder engine and 28 horsepower which might not have been the most powerful in the world, but it was the first mass produced car in Sweden.
The first car came rolling off the factory line in Gothenburg on 14 April 1927, a date regarded as the birth of the company’s car manufacturing. The name comes from the Swedish Öppen Vagn 4 cylindrar, meaning “open car, four cylinders” and the model was a four-seat open tourer designed to cope with Sweden’s rough roads.
Built with a wooden body frame covered in steel panels and usually finished in dark blue with black wings, the car was sometimes nicknamed “Jakob” after an early prototype. The premiere of the car went a bit wrong, a rear axle gear was installed incorrectly and the car only drove in reverse. It was a sub-optimal situation for the inaugural test drive, but the museum notes that from then on “Volvo moves forward”…..