Atlas 1:72 1969 Scania Vabis D11 Transit Bus

Scania-Vabis was a Swedish truck manufacturer, formed by the merger in 1911 of Scania and Vabis to combine their truck building operations. The Vabis name was dropped in 1968, and the truck building operation became Scania.

The firm of Scania-Vabis was a notable truck manufacturer in Sweden, formed by a merger in 1911. Its name came from the merger of Scania (Maskinfabriksaktiebolaget Scania), which started out by manufacturing bicycles, with Vabis (Vagnfabriks Aktiebolaget i Södertälje), in 1911. Until 1929 the company manufactured cars in Malmö, as well as trucks and buses. Over the succeeding years, the company, based in Södertälje, Sweden, developed an enviable reputation for the toughness, comfort and reliability of its commercial vehicles. The 1963 LB76 was the model that forged the Scania-Vabis reputation outside Sweden. This forward-control design was one of the first exhaustively crash-tested truck cabs.

For some time Daimler-Benz waged a 'logo war' with Scania-Vabis, claiming a possible confusion between the Scania-Vabis 'pedal crank' design featuring on Scania bicycles around 1900 and the Mercedes 'three-pointed star'. In 1968 Daimler-Benz won and the Scania-Vabis logo changed to a simple griffin's head on a white background, and 'Vabis' was dropped from the name. The name Scania almost certainly derived from the name of the region in Sweden where the company originated: Skåne.

The company was involved in bus production from its earliest days producing Post buses in the 1920's. Post war the company introduced the B series of buses which were followed by the BF series in the late 1950's. Bus production continues today as a major part of Scania's production after the dropping of the Vabis name in 1968.