Volvo Penta History

Here is a Volvo Penta History Timeline on how they became to be.

1900-1909: It was in the first decade of the 20th century that the engine production started. In 1907 Sköfde Gjuteri received and order for a paraffin engine for test operations. This was the famous B1 which was designed by Edvard Hubendick. The engine was called Penta, the Greek word for five, becasue of the five men who attended the meeting at which the first drawings were presented.

1910-1919: The engine range was extended with 2, 3 and 4-cylinder variants. All of the 3,268 engines that were sold before 1920 to boat owners, fire fighting services, the army, house-owners and other customers had a standard engine speed of 800 rpm. In 1919 the company was renamed AB Pentaverken. Engine manufacturing dominated this period, but profitability was poor during the depression that followed the First World War.

1920-1929:

This is the period of the first breakthrough for Penta as a product name. At the start of the 1920s the general depression forced the company to keep business at a very low level. The Two events that would change this are In 1922 the U2 outboard engine was introduced and 343 units were sold in the very first year. During the whole of the 1920s, no less than 7,874 U-2s were sold - more than the rest of the product range put together. In 1925 Penta received its first order from AB Volvo, a newly established car manufacturer in Goteborg. Two years later, the first Volvo cars were running, powered by Penta. Read more under 1925 in the navigation

1930-1939: At the start of the 1930s Fritz Egnell lost control of Pentaverken and Göteborgs Bank acquired a majority holding. Every year the company produced more Volvo engines than Penta engines, and Volvo's financial interest in Pentaverken increased. The production of marine, industrial and car engines under one roof, was no longer as smooth an operation as it had been in the beginning. Although time and motion studies and assembly-line production were introduced at an early stage - in 1930 - there were constant problems in the spring and summer which was the high season for Volvo and for other customers. Volvo was a demanding customer whose favors were being sought by many other Swedish companies and it was often necessary to work round the clock to complete its orders. In 1935, Volvo took over completely and the company was renamed Volvo Pentaverken. In the same year Volvo moved a design and sales department to Göteborg and set up AB Pentaverken in Göteborg, the company from which AB Volvo Penta developed.

1940-1949: AB Pentaverken had a hard time during the war and the years that followed, as all efforts in Volvo went to car, truck and bus production. Read more about the forties in the highlights section.In 1946 a very important product was introduced: the first in-line six cylinder diesel. Quiet and smooth running with pre-combustion, it immediately attracted a great deal of attention

1950-1959: The 50s was a decade of rapid development in products and business for Penta and the company developed into a truly international operation with an extensive network of dealers all around the globe. Read more about the fifties in the highlights section. The worlds first series produced turbo diesel was introduced in 1954 and followed two years later by the first charge air-cooled marine diesel. The engine range was extended and one of the new products was the MD1 - the world's smallest direct injected diesel with a revolutionary reverse gear.
1959 marked a major breakthrough for the company - and for the leisure boat business as a whole. The Aquamatic was introduced at the New York Boat Show in January 1959.

1960-1969: In 1965 the company changed its name again, this time to AB Volvo Penta. Exports continued to grow and subsidiaries were opened in England, Germany and Italy. Sales of the heavy duty, six-cylinder diesel engines for industrial and marine applications boomed.

1970-1979: Export successes continued in the early seventies and export share rose as high as 84% in 1973. Large volumes of industrial engines were sold to makers of irrigation units.
Volvo Penta acquired outboard production from Monark-Crescent, adding new products to the program. In 1973 the S-drive for sailboats was introduced and the year after Volvo Penta of North America was formed. 1976 - a plant is built in Chesapeake for modifying gasoline V8s to marine applications. 1977 - the 40 Engine is introduced. "The first diesel with petrol engine performance" said the press about this six-cylinder, direct injected marine diesel.

1980-1989: In 1982 Volvo Penta became an independent subsidiary of the Volvo Group. The success for the industrial engines continued and accounted for one third of the turnover.The pace of product launches was stepped up and the eighties saw a number of new marine and industrial engines. The most important new product without doubt was the Duoprop - the world's most advanced sterndrive.

1990-1999: During the 1990s, product development and new engine launches moved forward at an astonishing pace. The industrial engines and commercial boat engines grew in importance – helping to offset the huge swings in the leisure boat market. In 1991, Volvo Penta launched the KAD-concept, a new generation engines with lower weight that gave reduced emissions and reduced fuel consumption. The next year, in Lexington, Tennessee, Volvo Penta began manufacturing gasoline engines and Aquamatic sterndrives for the increasingly important American market. An important step was when Volvo Penta introduced the EFI technology, Electronic Fuel Injection, in the gasoline engines. In 1995 Volvo Penta was first to introduce Electronic Diesel Control, a system for electronic control and monitoring of the diesel engine. Needless to say, the boating press was ecstatic. In one bold sweep, the new technology had replaced the century old tradition of mechanical control. EDC marked the start of a technological revolution at sea. Volvo Penta was able to take advantage of the joint development of electronic systems in engines and vehicles within the Volvo Group – and apply the new technology to the marine environment. The results of these efforts would arrive after the new millenium.

2000-2009: Volvo Penta began the new millennium with the most comprehensive product renewal efforts in the boating industry. Virtually the entire engine range has been replaced. Electronics has taken the big leap into the marine world. And a completely new propulsion system has been introduced, resulting in engines that are cleaner, simpler, quicker and quieter.The grand march of electronics into the marine industry continued with Volvo Penta's new electronics platform, EVC (Electronic Vessel Control). With EVC as a base, Volvo Penta was ready in 2005 to write the next chapter in boating history – the launch of Volvo Penta IPS, Inboard Performance System.