Enter The World Of Volvo, The New Museum In Gothenburg

Today, Volvo is two separate and notably different corporations with a common history dating back to SKF, the partnership of Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson, and the debut of the ÖV4 in 1927. These companies were one Volvo Group until 1999, when the Volvo Car Corporation was sold to the Ford Motor Company, and subsequently joined the Geely portfolio 10 years later. Over the past 25 years, the two Volvos have maintained an important relationship to protect their shared branding and trademarks, and from 1995 through this past December, have shared an impressively comprehensive museum in Arendal, just outside of Gothenburg. Volvo Cars has also maintained its Brand Experience Centre on the factory grounds in Torslanda.

While much of its content will no longer be publicly displayed, the Volvo Museum’s star vehicle exhibits –and some of the Brand Experience Centre attractions– are promised to have a new home in World of Volvo, located in the heart of the brand’s home city. This facility consists of an irregularly shaped, timber- and glass-intensive 236,806-square-foot building placed in a setting that –as its plantings grow– promises to be park-like. The landmark new building was drawn up by prominent Danish architectural firm Henning Larsen, which understood Volvo’s desire to showcase naturalist Scandinavian design in a sustainable fashion. A key theme for the facility would be Allemansrätten, or the Swedish right of people to roam free in nature.

We're grateful to Volvo Car USA National Media Relations Manager Russell Datz for sharing these photos from World of Volvo, where he helped his colleagues prepare for this facility's grand opening on Sunday, April 14- 97 years to the day after the first Volvo ÖV4 rolled out of the factory.

Among the special Volvo vehicles now being displayed are two contributions from America: Irv Gordon's world-famous, 3.26-million-mile 1966 1800S -part of the Volvo Car USA heritage collection following Irv's unexpected death in 2018- and the Iron MavenS60 T8 hybrid-powered PV544 show car built by the all-female, all-volunteer Girl Gang Garage for display at SEMA.