The Sweden Connection

Fate brought Swedish companies Vabis and Scania together for the first time in 1901. That same year saw Sweden host its first automotive exhibition. Södertälje-based Vabis and Malmö-based Scania both presented their first passenger car prototypes in the Swedish capital, Stockholm. We don't know for sure if the two companies' employees discussed their experiences or maybe even had lunch together during the event. But we do know that they definitely did this ten years later - regularly, in fact. This is because the two Swedish vehicle manufacturers merged in 1911 under the management of Scania's director Per Alfred Nordeman to form a new company called Scania-Vabis. The merger was a success story from the very beginning, one that continues to this day.

It was preceded by some eventful years for both companies. Vabis had been founded in 1891 in Södertälje as a railway wagon factory, and did extremely well during the railway boom in Sweden. In search of new fields of business, the Vabis chief engineer at the time, Gustaf Erikson, built the first Swedish automobile back in 1897 - the very vehicle that was later shown in Stockholm.