Iconic blue streetcars in Gothenburg, Sweden. Andy Castillo photos.
By Andy Christian Castillo
Brianna and Andy outside the factory.
An explosion of sparks rained down, fizzling out on the concrete floor inside the press shop — first stop in Volvo’s car-making factory plant in Gothenburg, Sweden, as orange robotic arms straight-out-of-Transformers, dipped and spun, welding rivets onto frames filing past on a conveyor belt.
“Welcome to Volvo cars, welcome to Sweden!” said our guide, Nicole, who narrated from the front of a golf-cart train. “We are currently building about 100 cars per day.”
Volvo Overseas Delivery Program
As part of the 15-year-old Volvo Overseas Delivery Program, I was on a factory tour with my girlfriend, Brianna. Note: unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take my camera with me into the plant, so I couldn’t get any photos.
The tour was day-one of a week-long trip through West Sweden, which included a few days in Gothenburg. The program also provides new car buyers two round-trip tickets to Scandinavia, a night in a hotel for two, a factory tour (after-which buyers pick up their new car) and home delivery after a few-week vacation in Europe.
Inside the Volvo museum, near the factory.
For Bob and Vivian Mamlock, who were on the tour with us, it was the third time purchasing a car through the program. Vivian said they use the trip to visit family in Europe. This time, however, she said that, piggybacking off the program they’d also planned trips through Madagascar, Kenya, Fiji and Sweden.
Another couple from Washington, Tara and Ian Corbridge, who were on the tour with their daughter, Vivian, said they also planned to visit family.
Three Models Made in Gothenburg
At the plant, which opened in the 1960’s, three Volvo car models are made from start to finish. As we continued down the narrow corridor inside the factory, Nicole explained that last year, Volvo sold a record half a million cars. Each car takes about 40 hours to build from start to finish — including 16 hours in the paint shop.
It’s here in the press shop (which smelled like a bumper-car arena) that sheet metal is molded into cars, before moving to the body and paint shops and, finally, the assembly plant.
We drove on past skeletal frames in varying states of construction, as the orange robots whirled and hissed, welding rivets in a programmed sequence. Nicole said that at the start of the car-making process, a green tag with a metallic chip is installed on each frame, that tells robots at each proceeding station what program to run, dependent on car model. But, while there are a lot of robots, Volvo also employs a lot of people for quality control purposes, run machines, and test drive the finished product cars.
It’s the ultimate collaboration of technology and human ingenuity — and a good representation of the region’s values.
After the tour, we picked up a brand new Volvo XC90 and drove a few miles to the Volvo museum, and learned about the history behind the technology.
Gothenburg, a Thriving City
Gothenburg, Sweden at sunset.
Not far from the museum, Gothenburg presides as central hub over Sweden’s West Coast. The city is a thriving working-class city, with a lot of trendy cafes and a very unique personality. A bustling seaport accents fine dining experiences to be had at restaurants such as Natur and Clarion Post Hotel.
The charm of the city’s cobblestone streets match the charm of its blue streetcars and traditional Swedish architecture. Gothenburg definitely feels European, but, at the same time, it has unique resilience and taste reflected by the Swedish people. Everyone in Sweden dresses for the weather here, but at the same time manages to be incredibly fashionable.
Later in the trip, we had the chance to stand-up paddle through Point 65 Kayak Center. After picking up inflatable paddle boards, we took a train to River Säveån, behind Partille Station. Along the way, we saw a few boat houses, drifted under huge bridges and experienced the city in a very different way.
We also experienced the up-and-coming trendy neighborhood of Majorna where we had coffee at Kafé Marmelad — one of my favorite stops in Gothenburg. Unlike other neighborhoods I’ve been to situated on the outskirts of large cities, Majorna seemed to have its own identity, apart from Gothenburg.
In the district, small shops were tucked in-between delicious cafes and restaurants. We walked through leaves drifting down from overhanging vegetation, and found a little flower shop where Brianna bought a few souvenirs for home.
Deep Inside Volvo Land
The Volvo PV we drove through Gotheburg
Next on our trip, we stopped at Hotel Novotel, where we joined guide Peter Markusson from Time Travel Sightseeing Göteborg, on a tour through the city driving a classic 1960’s era Volvo PV.
“This is Volvo land, we’re deep inside Volvo land now,” he said before we buckled up, I turned the key, firing up the 75-horsepower engine, shifted into first gear and pulled off from the curb. It was fitting to end our trip through Europe driving an old Volvo, especially thinking about our first day.
On that first tour, Nicole told us that the name Volvo comes from the latin word “volveria,” which means to roam. That’s a word I’ll try to embody for the rest of my life and, I think, a very fitting word to represent the Volvo lifestyle.
We flew out the next day back to America, carrying with us souvenirs Brianna bought in Majorna, the scent of burnt oil (which Markusson said is typical to older Volvo PVs) and a lot of great memories.
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