page_title: Automotive industry in Sweden
section_title: 1919 to 1945
hierarchical_section_title: Automotive industry in Sweden / History / 1919 to 1945
caption_attribution_description: English: Thulin A20 Phaeton 1920
context_page_description: The automotive industry in Sweden is mainly associated with passenger car manufacturers Volvo Cars and Saab Automobile but Sweden is also home of two of the largest truck manufacturers in the world: Volvo AB and Scania AB. The automotive industry is heavily dependent on export as some 85 percent of the passenger cars and 95 percent of the heavy vehicles are sold outside of Sweden. The automotive industry and its sub-contractors is a major part of Swedish industry. In 2011 around 110,000 people were employed and the export income of 150 billion SEK accounted for 12 per cent of Sweden's export income. During 2009 128,738 passenger cars and 27,698 heavy vehicles were built in Sweden.
context_section_description: Swedish aircraft manufacturer AB Thulinverken in Landskrona started building automobiles in 1920. The car was based on a design from German manufacturer AGA.  The production was limited and when Volvo started production in 1927 Thulin left the automobile industry after some 500 cars had been built.
  In 1921 Scania-Vabis went bankrupt. After reconstruction the company decided to abandon passenger car production and close their plant in Malmö and focus on truck production in Södertälje. The situation got better when Scania-Vabis received a large order for buses from the Swedish postal service. The large and powerful Scania-Vabis trucks were also used for snow removal and other road maintenance work in Sweden.
  In the 1920s Ford Motor Company and General Motors opened assembly plants in Sweden. Chrysler Corporation cooperated with Svenska Bilfabriken AB. Ford's factory in Stockholm was active until mid-1950s.
  Volvo started production of passenger cars and light trucks in Gothenburg in 1927, backed by ball bearing manufacturer SKF. Production of passenger cars was limited during the first decades but the trucks were successful and kept the company profitable.
  During the great depression Tidaholm started losing money and finally halted vehicle production in 1934. Some 850 vehicles had been manufactured since 1903.
  AB Nyköpings Automobilfabrik (ANA) started licence assembly in 1937, first from American Chrysler Corporation and later on from European companies like Standard Motor Company and Simca. Car assembly stopped when Saab bought ANA in 1960.
caption: 1920 Thulin A.
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