“Never has it been so valuable” – the slogan is catchy and has been promoting a healing potion very familiar to Germans for around 100 years. For IAV, the slogan sums up the significance of the major Volvo order of 1994: At a time when its main shareholder Volkswagen was suffering from a decline in demand and production and when the crisis in the automotive industry was also affecting IAV, Volvo agreed to cooperate with IAV on VW’s recommendation: The aim was to apply the 5-cylinder VW diesel engine to vehicles built by the Swedish carmaker.

Within a year and a half, IAV, in close cooperation with Volvo and VW, managed to redesign the TDI engine installed longitudinally in the Audi 100 and to carry out the necessary approval tests so that it could be installed transversely as a drive unit in the Volvo 850. The innovative Volvo 850 quickly became a successful model and bestseller, winning some 50 international awards and attracting a number of new customers to the brand.

For IAV, the Volvo deal secured its future – engine applications for the Volvo S70 and S80 models followed in the further course of the decade, as did engine-specific maintenance measures for models of the P2X platform and the S60.