All About Swedish Car Brands

Though it’s comparatively small, Sweden is a force on the automaker world stage.
Written by Alex Reale
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
When we talk about countries that spend a lot of time thinking about and
producing cars
, the same names tend to come up over and over again. China, Japan, Germany, South Korea, and the U.S. are dominant forces in global auto markets, and it isn’t a surprise to see a Toyota in Argentina, or a
Tesla
in Australia. 
But the car world doesn’t just revolve around these five countries. Let’s not forget the contributions of a country with a fraction of the population of the bigger names, which nonetheless holds its own on the world stage—Sweden.

You’ve heard of these

This comparatively small country has had an outsized impact on the automotive industry.
Global Cars Brands
gives us a helpful list of brands that originate from the home of ABBA. 
World-famous Volvo is perhaps the most recognizable. Founded in 1927, the Swedish firm’s stated purpose was to make high-quality cars that would suit the snowy roads of its homeland, says
Volvo
They accomplished this with the ÖV4 and the PV 444, but 20th-century Volvo’s most impactful contribution came in 1959: engineer Nils Bohlin invented the modern three-point seatbelt. If you’re reading this and you’ve been in a car, your journey has been made safer by the work of Bohlin, and by the choice of Volvo to forgo its rights to the patent.
Saab is another familiar name, although talking about Saab as a car company is an aging reference. Bought in 2000 by GM, the struggling auto division was nevertheless bankrupt by 2011. 
The brand lives on as a security and defense company, but in its heyday it made cars that were influenced by the firm’s airplane technology, says
Saab
. Their dependable cars were strong sellers in the U.S., and a little bit famous, too—anyone who watched the hit show “The Office” may have spotted Jim Halpert driving a Saab 9-2X Aero. 
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Less well-known, at least for now

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Sweden is also responsible for up-and-comer Polestar, a subsidiary of Volvo. Born in 1996 as its parent company’s racing division, the brand eventually pivoted to performance and EV, says
Car and Driver
In 2019, Polestar released the electric hybrid Polestar 1, a minimalist sedan that packed an impressive 619 hp under its hood. And two years later they introduced the all-electric Polestar 2, an even glossier model. The 2022 model starts at $45,900, which one can’t help but assume is designed to be positively compared to the Tesla Model 3, which costs about a thousand dollars more.
Scania is another Sweden-born brand that may ring a bell. The 130-year-old company started out building train cars and has since expanded into a huge force in the world of transportation. Its red and blue logo, which depicts a mythical griffin in profile, adorns countless trucks and buses. In 2020, it reported a European market share of 16.2% for heavy duty trucks.

Save the flashiest for last

MORE: Supercars vs Hypercars–What's the Difference?
And now that we’ve eaten our vegetables, we can turn to the most over-the-top brand to come from the home of Ingrid Bergman: Koenigsegg. This brash maker of shiny hypercars keeps on pushing the boundaries of speed and performance for production cars, to the point of ludicrousness. Its Agera RS model broke Bugatti’s prevailing speed record in 2017, clocking in at 277.9 miles per hour. 
But even that is old news—Koenigsegg now claims that its Jesko Absolut can go 330 miles per hour, powered by 1200 hp. So if you have a cool $3 million lying around, see if you can snap one of these up and test out this theory. What a nice homage to Swedish engineering! 
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