Volvo ÖV4 – the open-top beginning of a Swedish motoring story
1927: Gabrielsson and Larson’s idea becomes reality in Gothenburg
The first production Volvo was open-topped, tall and built around proven technology. With the ÖV4, Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson laid the foundations for something far bigger than they themselves could foresee. Today, the surviving cars tell the story of the craftsmanship behind the industry.
By Lars EkströmEditor-in-chief · Veteran cars and motoring historyTranslated from Swedish with the help of AI.
On 14 April 1927, sales manager Hilmer Johansson drove the first production Volvo out of the factory on Hisingen in Gothenburg. The car was an ÖV4, an open four-seater with an upright radiator, freestanding headlamps and a folded hood behind the cockpit. What rolled across the factory threshold was no technical revolution. What made it remarkable was that the idea of a Swedish-built car had now become a product to sell.
The 1927 model-year Volvo ÖV4 is the starting point for this story. The designation stood for an open car with a four-cylinder engine. The name “Jakob” is often used for the model, but originally belonged to one of the prototypes. It is a small distinction worth preserving when the car is presented as the first Volvo.
Two men and a network of workshops
Assar Gabrielsson came from SKF and had the business acumen. Gustaf Larson was the engineer who could turn those ambitions into drawings, material choices and manufacturing work. During the mid-1920s, they pushed ahead with prototype cars and sought a route to series production. SKF’s backing proved decisive, and manufacturing was established in Lundby on Hisingen.
The idea was not that every part had to be invented or manufactured within the same factory gates. Volvo was built around a network of suppliers and workshops. The engines came from Pentaverken in Skövde, while components and craftsmanship from several sources came together during assembly in Gothenburg. Behind the founders’ familiar names were people who fitted bearings, straightened panels and checked that the parts really did work together.
The Swedish market already had plenty of imported cars. A new manufacturer therefore needed to offer more than national pride: the car had to withstand the roads of the day and be maintainable. The ÖV4 was the beginning, but its open body limited its usefulness for much of the year. The enclosed PV4 joined it as early as 1927.
Proven technology beneath high wings
The ÖV4 was built on a separate chassis. Its body combined a timber frame with sheet metal, a method in which woodworking and panel beating were as integral as mechanical assembly. The styling is associated with the artist Helmer MasOlle, who was also involved in the early experimental cars.
Its appearance belongs unmistakably to the 1920s: a narrow body, a high step up into the cabin, running boards between the wings and large wheels. The upright windscreen and folding hood offered basic weather protection, not the shelter that a later Volvo owner would take for granted. The cabin’s simplicity speaks of a time when a car journey called for both weather-appropriate clothing and preparation.
Under the bonnet sat a low-revving four-cylinder side-valve engine. Power went through a manual gearbox to the rear wheels. Rigid axles and leaf springs were familiar solutions to workshops. There was no reason to make the design any less familiar than necessary to those who would keep the car running.
The brakes acted on the rear wheels, an important reminder of the car’s age. The ÖV4 should not be judged as a modern car in old-fashioned clothes. Following distances, route choices and anticipation must be adapted to its design, particularly when it encounters today’s traffic.
A car for a different everyday life
We have not driven the ÖV4. Even so, its intended use says much about its character: this was a passenger car for country roads and town, not a competition machine. The engine’s modest output and the chassis layout belong to a motoring world in which the ability to get through and ease of repair counted for a great deal.
The launch price in Sweden was 4 800 kronor in 1927. That hardly made it an obvious household purchase. Car ownership also involved regular checks, lubrication and adjustments of the sort today’s drivers usually leave to a workshop. For the early owner, contact with the car’s mechanical workings was considerably more direct.
Preserved history demands care
Production stopped at 275 examples over the years 1927–1929. The ÖV4 was therefore no sales success in volume terms, but its historical significance is greater than the production figure. It showed that the organisation, suppliers and assembly operation could form a functioning car manufacturer.
Surviving ÖV4s are held in museum collections, including Volvo’s. However, an exact number of surviving cars should not be quoted without an up-to-date inventory. Nor should a highly polished museum example automatically be described as an untouched original.
For each individual car, the chassis number, ownership history and restoration records need to be examined. The timber frame, body panels, instruments and mechanical parts may have been repaired or replaced over almost a century. That is where much of the fascination lies: the ÖV4 is both an industrial milestone marking a beginning and a hand-built object whose details still bear traces of the workshops behind the first Volvo.
Sources
- Volvo Cars, Volvo ÖV4
- Volvo Group, Our history
- Björn-Eric Lindh, Volvo 1927–1977 (1977)
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