{{Infobox company | name = Maskinfabriks-aktiebolaget Scania | logo = | logo_size = | logo_alt = | logo_caption = | logo_padding = | image = Scania 1903.jpg | image_size = | image_alt = | image_caption = 1903 Scania bicycle, fitted with an engine<br />connected by a leather belt. | native_name = | native_name_lang = <!-- Use ISO 639-1 code, e.g. "fr" for French. For multiple names in different languages, use {{lang|[code]|[name]}}. --> | former_name = | type = | industry = {{unbulleted list|Bicycles|Automotive}} | founded = 1900<!-- if known: {{start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} in city, state, country --> | founder = <!-- or: | founders = --> | defunct = 1911<!-- {{end date|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | fate = Merged with Vabis, to create Scania-Vabis | hq_location = | hq_location_city = Malmö | hq_location_country = Sweden | area_served = <!-- or: | areas_served = --> | key_people = | products = | brands = | services = | owner = <!-- or: | owners = --> | ratio = <!-- for BANKS ONLY --> | rating = <!-- for BANKS ONLY --> | website = <!-- or: | homepage = --><!-- {{URL|example.com}} --> }} '''Maskinfabriks-aktiebolaget Scania'''<ref name="norsk-scania1995" /> (''Maskinfabriks AB Scania''), translates ''Machine Factory Limited Company Scania'', was a Swedish bicycle manufacturer established in Malmö in 1900. The company rapidly expanded to manufacture other products like precision gears, vacuum cleaners, automobiles, trucks and engines. The company was in 1911 merged with Vabis, to form Scania-Vabis.
==History== thumb|left|1901 Scania A1 prototype. British bicycle manufacturer Humber & Co had set up a Swedish subsidiary in Malmö in 1896. In 1900, Humber moved their operations to Stockholm, which led to local entrepreneurs taking over the Malmö workshop, initially manufacturing the same as before. The new company was named after Scania, the old Latin name of the region that is locally known as ''Skåne''.
The first automobile prototypes were built in 1901, the ''Scania A1'', with production starting in 1903 and soon also trucks.<ref name="heritage-timeline1900" /> The company built their first industrial engine in 1905, a 24-hp 4-cylinder water pump engine for the Stockholm fire brigade.<ref name="heritage-timeline1905" /> By 1908, when the company had sold some 70 automobiles, built with engines, gearboxes and other parts imported from France and Germany, they started making their own engines.<ref name="scania1910" />
It is considered that the first ever occasion that a Scania truck was transported out of Sweden was for the first international auto show at Akershus Fortress in Norway's capital Kristiania on 20 May 1909. The display included a truck of type IL, a 3-tonne truck built between 1908 and 1910, and an engine, but neither were sold, and returned to Malmö.<ref name="norsk-scania1995" /> The first export sale of a Scania truck happened in 1910, when the city of Saint Petersburg in Russia needed a cable repair truck for its tramway.<ref name="scania1910" />
thumb|Picture from the 1909 trip from Malmö to Stockholm. As a marketing stunt the same year, a group of six representatives from the factory set off from Malmö with a type E truck loaded with 1.8 tonnes of cargo with the auto show in Stockholm as their destination, a trip that took them three days. To avoid any risk of a flat tyre, the truck was fitted with massive rubber tyres. This 520-kilometre trip is considered the first long-distance truck transport in Sweden ever, and was considered at the time as a major achievement.<ref name="heritage-timeline1909" />
The manufacturing of engines, automobiles and trucks was so successful that in 1910, the board decided to phase out all other products, leaving their bicycle manufacturing roots. Per Alfred Nordeman, managing director of Maskinfabriks-aktiebolaget Scania, was then looking for a partner to build coachwork, and found Södertälje-based Vagnfabriks Aktiebolaget i Södertelge (Vabis). Vabis was in such a bad economic state that its owner, steel manufacturer Surahammars Bruk, considered closing it down, but a proposal from Nordeman stopped that from happening. An agreement was reached in November 1910, and in 1911 the two companies were merged to create Scania-Vabis, today known as Scania AB. Initially, the headquarters and manufacturing of trucks continued in Malmö, while development and production of engines and light automobiles happened at Vabis' workshop in Södertälje. The management moved their headquarters to Södertälje in 1912, and the truck production was the last to leave Malmö in the late 1920s.<ref name="scania1910" /><ref name="autoevo" />
The company's logo was a three-spoke bicycle crank with the head of a griffin, the coat of arms of Scania, in the middle, and after the merger the same logo was used for more than five and a half decade before being replaced. Since 1984, the logo once again depicts the griffin on a shape simplified from the crank, even if the succeeding company neither has any relation to the region, nor manufacture bicycles.
==References== <references> <ref name="norsk-scania1995">{{cite book |last=Berg |first=Jørgen Seemann |year=1995 |title=King of the road i femti år: Norsk Scania AS 1945-1995 |isbn=82-993693-0-4 |location=Oslo, Norway |publisher=Norsk Scania AS |url=http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2008021800056#9 |page=9 |language=Norwegian}}</ref> <ref name="scania1910">{{cite web |url=http://www.scania.com/scania-group/history-of-scania/1910/ |title=The history of Scania: 1910 − A new company is born |publisher=Scania AB |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925222952/http://www.scania.com/scania-group/history-of-scania/1910/ |archive-date=2015-09-25}}</ref> <ref name="heritage-timeline1900">{{cite web |url=http://www.scania.com/group/en/1900-2/ |title=1900: Scania acquires bicycle maker |publisher=Scania AB |access-date=18 March 2016 |archive-date=29 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329020957/http://www.scania.com/group/en/1900-2/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> <ref name="heritage-timeline1905">{{cite web |url=http://www.scania.com/group/en/1905-2/ |title=1905: First industrial engine |publisher=Scania AB |access-date=18 March 2016 |archive-date=29 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329001604/http://www.scania.com/group/en/1905-2/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> <ref name="heritage-timeline1909">{{cite web |url=http://www.scania.com/group/en/1909-2/ |title=1909: Adventurous 520 kilometre trip |publisher=Scania AB |access-date=18 March 2016 |archive-date=28 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328224551/http://www.scania.com/group/en/1909-2/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> <ref name="autoevo">{{cite web |url=http://www.autoevolution.com/trucks/scania/history/ |title=Scania |publisher=Autoevolution |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120215095531/http://www.autoevolution.com/trucks/scania/history/ |archive-date=2012-02-15}}</ref> </references>
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scania, Maskinfabiks-aktiebolaget}} Category:Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1900 Category:Scania AB Category:Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Sweden Category:Companies based in Malmö Category:Cycle manufacturers of Sweden Category:Motorcycle manufacturers of Sweden Category:20th century in Malmö