Scania-Vabis

Scania-Vabis B3243 Bus 1927
Scania-Vabis 2122 1929

Scania-Vabis was a Swedish truck and car manufacturer that existed from 1911 to 1968. The company was formed when Scania merged with Vabis. Car production ended in 1929. Ultimately, the name Vabis was dropped in 1968.

History

Scania-Vabis L71 1957
Scania-Vabis Capitol 1962

The company's name resulted from the merger of Maskinfabriksaktiebolaget Scania, which started out by manufacturing bicycles, and Vabis (Vagnfabriks Aktiebolaget i Södertälje), in 1911. Until 1929 the company manufactured cars in Södertälje, as well as trucks and buses in Malmö. Over the succeeding years, the company, based in Södertälje, developed a reputation for the toughness, comfort and reliability of its commercial vehicles. The 1963 forward-control LB76 forged Scania-Vabis's reputation outside Sweden, being one of the first exhaustively crash-tested truck cabs.

Scania-Vabis LS5646 1967

Because there were many inexpensive, imported cars in Sweden at the time, Scania-Vabis decided to build high-class, luxury cars, for instance the type III limousine from 1920 that had a top hat holder in the roof. Prince Carl of Sweden owned a 1913 Scania-Vabis 3S, a type which was fitted with in-car buttons so the passenger could communicate with the driver. Scania-Vabis also built two-seat sports cars (or "sportautomobil").[1]

The company was involved in bus production from its earliest days, producing mail buses in the 1920s. Post-war the company introduced their B-series of buses, followed by the BF-series in the late 1950s.

Scania-Vabis at some point in their history also manufactured trucks in Argentina, Botswana, Brazil, South-Korea, Tanzania, the Netherlands, Zimbabwe and the United States.

For some time Daimler-Benz waged a 'logo war' with Scania-Vabis, claiming a possible confusion between the Scania-Vabis 'pedal crank' design featuring on Scania bicycles around 1900 and the Mercedes 'three-pointed star'. In 1968 Daimler-Benz won and the Scania-Vabis logo changed to a simple griffin's head on a white background, and 'Vabis' was dropped from the name.

Trucks

Many historical Scania-Vabis vehicles (and also Vabis and Scania vehicles) are on display in the Marcus Wallenberg-hallen (the Scania Museum) in Södertälje.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ekström, Gert (1984). Svenska bilbyggare. Allt om hobby. ISBN 91-85496-22-7.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scania-Vabis vehicles.