Volvo 780 Worldwide Production Numbers (estimated)

These revised figures differ from Volvo Sweden’s officially published 780 production number of 8,518 cars. These new numbers are based on vehicle serial (chassis) numbers listed in the Volvo 780 Parts Catalog, and data contributed by Volvo North America and other 780 owners. Certain dates and figures are estimates and this page will be continually updated as more data becomes available. If anyone has any additional information, please e-mail me.

Latest update January 2021, from Volvo Cards Historical Archives Sweden and Sven-Gunnar Johansson.

The 780’s serial number is the last six digits of the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and can be found on the vehicle’s data plate.

Model Year Production Period Serial (Chassis) Numbers Units Built Imported to U.S.
1985 (?) 3
1986 (G) 1985-8/86 000001-000683 581 0
1987 (H) 9/86-8/87 001200-003235 1,987 501
1988 (J) 9/87-8/88 004000-006334 2,086 1681
1989 (K) 9/88-8/89 006500-008834 2,430 2057
1990 (L) 9/89-8/90 009000-010305 1,416 927
1991 (M) 9/90-11/90 011305-011829 448 389
1992-1994* — — — 140
Total: 8,951 5,695

*Based on information from Volvo North America. 140 1991 Coupes left in inventory were imported to the U.S. between 1992-1994.

Numbers of Volvo780 officially exported

Countries Amounts Update 1998
USA 5,670
Italy 1,382 780 TDI: Sold only in Italy ’86: 500 total 683
Sweden 396
Japan 416
Canada 347
France 231
Belgium 122 780 Petrol: ’86: 4, ’87: 20, ’88: 14, ’89: 4, ’90: 11, ’91: 5 total: 58
780 TDI: ’86: 2, ’87: 3, ’88: 1, ’89: 4, ’90: 8 total 18
Switzerland 79
TDS 74
Netherlands 46
Spain 44
Austria 34
Portugal 22
U.A.E. Arabian Gulf 16
Norway 14
Denmark 13
Kuwait 11
Finland 10
Puerto Rico 9
Argentina 8
Taiwan 5
Chile 1
Oman 1

From http://www.volvobertone.com/aantal780.html#per:

X X stands for Try-out-car, in the 80’s often used for the first chassis number of every year-model.
The X is there for preventing those cars to been sold to customer as new.
Normally those cars have been used for internal use by the manufacturer, in some cases by the importer.
They are later sold to customer as used cars by local dealers when the cars are between 6 and 24 months.
B 780 with chassis number from 6500 built from the end of august 1988 until december 1988 was called 1989 years model on all markets except Sweden, due to regulations from 1989 years model. The models without catalyst was not allowed to register as 1989 model and models with catalyst had a tax-reduction if they were called 1988 instead of 1989.
Those “false” 1988 was in Sweden called 1988B.

Thanks by Per Godlund for “X” digitinfo in Chassis number and “B” explanation.

Note: we now know there is also a Modelyear code “0” or zero which is nowhere in the books. Check this car: yv17826970d009903. We are still looking for the story behind this “VIN that shouldn’t exist”.