Volvo Canada
| Volvo Canada Ltd.
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Limited |
| founding | July 21, 1958 |
| Seat |
Toronto , Ontario Canada
|
| Branch |
Automobile trade (current) car - Final Assembly (former.) |
| Website | www.volvocars.com/en-ca |
Volvo Canada Limited / Limitée is a former Canadian automobile manufacturer and current distributor that is a subsidiary of Volvo Personvagnar AB .
history
Volvo Canada was founded on July 21, 1958 after the first vehicles had been imported to Canada a year earlier.
The assembly plant project was mainly driven by local politicians and the regional economic development agency Industrial Estates Limited (IEL). The proximity to Sweden and the comparatively low wage level spoke in favor of the Dartmouth location near Halifax in the province of Nova Scotia . It was the first non-American assembly plant before Honda of America Mfg. in 1982. Prince of Sweden Bertil Oskar Carl Gustaf Eugén also took part in the official opening of the plant (a former sugar factory) in June 1963 , who tightened the last screw on the first Volvo with a gold-plated screwdriver.
The plant initially started operations with 100 employees. By 1965 a local share of 40% had been achieved. In the first few years, production fell short of expectations: instead of the 5000 and 7500 units targeted for the first two years, only 1139, 2683 and 3353 vehicles were produced in the first three years.
With an agreement between the United States and Canada passed in 1964, some of the import duties in the automotive sector were eliminated under certain conditions . While this agreement was primarily intended to benefit the major US manufacturers (GM, Ford, Chrysler), Volvo Canada was also able to benefit from it thanks to the efforts of the Canadian side.
In 1966 the company's headquarters moved to Toronto ; at the same time, the plant moved to a 190,000 square foot facility in Halifax. Here production could now be increased step by step to 5000 vehicles per year. After expanding the new site by 60,000 square feet, the theoretical production capacity was significantly improved to 15,000 vehicles. By August 1971, 40,000 Volvos had been produced in Canada.
In 1987 Volvo Canada announced that it would move to a new manufacturing facility in Bayer's Lake industrial park.
The production plant was closed in 1998 due to excessive production capacities in the entire group. The last Volvo rolled off the assembly line on December 11, 1998. With 6,000 and 8,400 vehicles respectively in the last two years, Volvo Canada produced less than a tenth of the Swedish parent company. Further arguments for the closure were the relative aging of the workforce and the fact that the new owner Ford was able to import Volvo models into the USA at lower tariffs even without the plant.
According to the company, around 350,000 Volvo vehicles had been sold in Canada by 2009.
Models
The models produced included the PV 544 and the P120 , 140 , 240 and 260 , 700 ( 740 , 760 , 780 ), S70 and V70 series . The Volvo Amazon was marketed in Canada as Volvo Canadian . In January 1971, the Volvo 142 E became the first vehicle in North America with computer-controlled fuel injection.
Two Volvo Canada-made examples are on display in the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry. The older vehicle is a four-door B-18 that was one of the first vehicles owned by the Nova Scotia Regional Secretary of Commerce and Economy and donated to the museum in 1967. The second model is the last Volvo made in Canada - a 1999 model year S70 - which was given away for charity in 1998 and made its way to the museum in 2017.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Dimitry Anastakis: Building a "New Nova Scotia": State Intervention, The Auto Industry and the Case of Volvo in Halifax, 1963-1998 , in: Acadiensis Vol. 34 (2004), pp. 3-30.
- ↑ a b Volvo Canadian. In: museumofindustry.novascotia.ca. March 20, 2013, accessed May 4, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Volvo Canada celebrates 50th anniversary. In: media.volvocars.com. July 21, 2009, accessed May 3, 2018 .
- ↑ Brendan Mc Aleer: What is the most Canadian car ever? In: North Shore News. July 17, 2017, accessed May 5, 2018 .
- ↑ Sueann Musick: Parked one last time. In: The News. November 1, 2017, accessed May 4, 2018 .