Continental Gislaved (formerly just Gislaved) is a manufacturer of rubber tires. Until 1980, Gislaved produced tires for cars and

trucks A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

, today only for passenger cars (including

SUVs A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...

History

Gislaved was a Swedish car

tire A tire (North American English) or tyre (Commonwealth English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineeri ...

manufacturer. Gislaved was formed in 1893 when the brothers Carl and Wilhelm Gislow started manufacturing rubber products in the municipality of

Gislaved Gislaved () is the seat and most populous locality of Gislaved Municipality. With a population of 10,269 at the 2020 census, it is the 7th largest locality in Jönköping County. Sports The following sports clubs are located in Gislaved: * Gis ...

. The company's first products were balls and galoshes. In 1904, Gislow's factory began to produce bicycle tires, and in 1905 a

car tire A tire (North American English) or tyre (Commonwealth English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineeri ...

was released. The production of the first tire took a whole day, the work was personally supervised by General Director Wilhelm Gislow. The first Gislaved car tires were not durable. The carcass of the tires used several layers of textile fibers without rubber layers between them. Such tires quickly collapsed. In 1912, company management went to Stockholm to watch the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

. They took a few spare tires with them. The last one broke down on the way back, the car did not even have time to return home to

Norrköping Norrköping ( , ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Lin ...

. Because of this, it was decided to suspend tire production until a more reliable design was found. Tire production was resumed, in 1926. The new design used layers of cotton thread cord separated from each other by a layer of rubber. These tires were called Gislaved Nord, and the novelty did not go unnoticed. In 1927, Gislaved began supplying factory tires for

Volvo cars Volvo Car AB, trading as Volvo Cars (, styled VOLVO in the company's logo) is a Sweden, Swedish multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles. Volvo is headquartered in Torslanda, Gothenburg. The company manufactures SUVs, station wagons, and ...

. As a result, Gislaved's daily tire shipments increased by more than 25 times.«О шинах Gislaved»
About Gislaved tires"(in Russian) Gislaved tires became even more advanced after a technical know-how agreement was signed with US Rubber Company (these days Uniroyal tire brand) in 1938. In 1985, Gislaved began to cooperate with the Norwegian tire manufacturer Viking Tires. The following year, the companies merged under the name Nivis Tyre AB with headquarters in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

. In 1991, Viking closed its factory in Axim, and the tire company Continental AG bought a 49% stake in Nivis Tyre AB. A year later,

Continental AG Continental AG, commonly known as Continental and colloquially as Conti, is a German multinational automotive parts manufacturing company. Headquartered in Hanover, Lower Saxony, it is the world's third- largest automotive supplier and the fo ...

buys the remaining part of Nivis Tyre AB. For the first time, the production of Gislaved and Viking tires continues in Sweden and Norway, respectively. However, in 2002, owner decides to close the historical production in Gislaved. Current production is in France, Slovakia, Romania, Portugal. The Gislaved brand is today used by Continental AG for products developed for the Swedish, Canadian, German, Spanish, Italian and

Nordic Nordic most commonly refers to: * Nordic countries, the northern European countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and their North Atlantic territories * Scandinavia, a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern ...

markets. It still in 2024 uses its name on production in Russian factories.

References

External links

Official website
Manufacturing companies of Sweden Tire manufacturers of Sweden Manufacturing companies established in 1893 Swedish brands Continental AG Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1992 Swedish companies established in 1893 1992 disestablishments in Sweden Companies disestablished in 1992 Swedish companies disestablished in the 1990s Gislaved Municipality 19th-century establishments in Jönköping County {{motorvehicle-company-stub