Past and Present, Volvo Has Always Been the Future of Cars

In the quarter century since Volvo rolled my ruby-red 240 wagon off an assembly line, its creator has gone from a modest Swedish independent automaker to part of a massive American conglomerate to an arm of a Chinese automaker that's pushing driverless cars and racing to go fully electric in the next two years. It's been a funky journey for a funky automaker, but it's no mere aberration or footnote. If you want to understand the car industry of the past 25 years--and maybe the next 25--study Volvo's journey. For a niche player best known for shuttling liberals and hippies, Volvo has long played an outsized role in the evolution of the auto industry. It invented and made standard the three-point seat belt.