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SCANIA.
Södertälje, Sweden
The company’s roots go back to 1891 when Fredrik Petersen
set up Svenska Aktiebolaget Humber & Co to manufacture and assemble English
designed Humber bicycles under licence. Bicycle production ceased after 1901 and
a new company was formed under Petersen’s directorship named
Maskinfabriksaktiebolaget Scania. Scania produced their first truck the Tor in
1903.
VABIS (Vagnfabriks Aktiebolaget i Södertälje) was
established in 1892 building railway rolling stock and horse drawn wagons.
The focus changed over the years beginning with Gustav Erikson design
work on internal combustion engines. Later the company began to produce
automotive engines and passenger cars under the Vabis name and produced their
first truck, a 1½ tonner in 1902/3. After
suffering financial difficulties Vabis merged with Scania in 1917 to form A.B.
Scania-Vabis.
The new trucks were named Scania-Vabis were based on the
Scania chain-drive models and the range expanded to 6 tonners.
Scania-Vabis supplied 4-wheel drive vehicles for the army during the
First World War. By 1927 experiments were going ahead with diesel engines, the
first entering in production in 1936. Major expansion took place at the end of
the 1930s and early 1940s, later as civilian demand diminished due to World War
2 the demand for military vehicles increased.
During the 1950s introduced new models to increase their
export drive, mainly bonneted heavy duty with direct injection diesel engines
based on LEYLAND technology.
The story of Scania in Europe and the UK begins with the
Scania-Vabis LB76 introduced in 1963. The introduction of the LB80 and LB110 in
1968 consolidated their position. The name Vabis was dropped in 1969 and the
vehicle were known from then on as Scania. The rest as they say is history. In
1999 it was announce that Scania was being taken over by Volvo but this was
blocked by the European Union. Volvo still owns shares in Scania and as a result
of the takeover blockage Volvo has to dispose of the shares: the wrangling with
the EU still goes on in 2004. Volkswagen now has a large equity stake in Scania
and the company (Scania) has formed a technical, rather than financial alliance
with MAN.
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