Vabis
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
car and truck manufacturer, founded in 1891 as Vagnfabriks Aktiebolaget i Södertälje in municipality of Södertälje
Södertälje
Södertälje is a city and the seat of Södertälje Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 86,069 inhabitants in 2010.The industrial city, about south of Stockholm, is the home to truck maker Scania AB and a top 10 pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca....
to produce railway cars.
The first Vabis automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
(though the name was not applied until after this) was a four-seater designed by Gustaf Erikson
Gustaf Erikson
Gustaf Adolf Mauritz Erikson was a ship-owner from Mariehamn, in the Åland islands, famous for the fleet of windjammers he operated to the end of his life, mainly on the grain trade from Australia to Europe....
in Surahammar
Surahammar
Surahammar is a locality and the seat of Surahammar Municipality in Västmanland County, Sweden with 6,276 inhabitants in 2005.- References :...
in 1897. Strongly resembling a contemporary carriage, it used a one-cylinder
Single cylinder engine
A single-cylinder engine is a basic piston engine configuration of an internal combustion engine. It is often seen on motorcycles, auto rickshaws, motor scooters, mopeds, dirt bikes, go-karts, radio-controlled models and has many uses in portable tools and garden machinery...
kerosene
Kerosene
Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
engine, tiller steering
Steering
Steering is the term applied to the collection of components, linkages, etc. which will allow a vessel or vehicle to follow the desired course...
, and was not a success. Erikson replaced it with a tube-ignition four-stroke flat-twin
Flat-twin
A flat-twin is a two cylinder internal combustion engine with the cylinders arranged on opposite sides of the crankshaft. It is part of the class of flat engines, sub-type "boxer", and shares most characteristics of those engines.-Motorcycle use:...
in 1898, mounting it in a horse carriage, which he drove briefly. He then joined Vagnfabrik AB at Södertälje, building cars. The first truck appeared in 1902.
Vabis merged with Maskinfabriks AB Scania in 1911, to create AB Scania-Vabis
Scania-Vabis
Scania-Vabis was a Swedish truck and car manufacturer. The company was formed from a merger of Scania with the firm of Vabis in 1911. The car production ended in 1929...
.
Many examples of Vabis, Scania and Scania-Vabis commercial and military vehicles can be seen at the Marcus Wallenberg-hallen
Marcus Wallenberg-hallen
The Marcus Wallenberg-hallen is a vehicle museum in Södertälje, in the Swedish province of Sörmland.-Background:...
(the Scania Museum) in Södertälje.