Jösse Car was a

sports car A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as Automobile handling, handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and Auto racing, racing capability. Sports cars originated in ...

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary se ...

founded in 1994 and located in

Arvika Arvika is a locality and the seat of Arvika Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden with 14,244 inhabitants in 2010. Geography The town of Arvika is situated at Kyrkviken, a bay of Glafsfjorden, Sweden's only inland fjord, a remnant of the tim ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. They produced one vehicle, the two seater roadster

Indigo 3000 The Indigo 3000 is a Swedish sports car produced by Jösse Car from 1996–2000. 44 working cars were produced and it was the only car manufactured by Jösse Car before they folded. It was designed by Hans Philip Zackau, who also did work on t ...

History

In October 1993, Bengt Lidmalm visited the

TVR TVR Electric Vehicles Limited is a British manufacturer of sports cars. The company manufactures lightweight sports cars with powerful engines and was, at one time, the third-largest specialised sports car manufacturer in the world, offering ...

showroom in

Earl's Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

, London, and began looking into the idea of creating his own sportscar. Lidmalm partnered with Sven-Olof Fogelberg of

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

founding Jösse Car AB in Arvika, Sweden in 1994. Hans Philip Zackau who designed the

Volvo 850 The Volvo 850 is a compact executive car that was produced by the Swedish manufacturer Volvo Cars from 1991 until 1997. Designed by Jan Wilsgaard, the car was introduced in a Sedan (automobile), saloon body style; an Station wagon, estate style ...

was recruited as chief designer to design their first car, the Indigo 3000 powered by a 3 litre Volvo engine and based around a lightweight body on a galvanized steel frame. In March 1996, Jösse Car produced their first customer vehicle. In media tests, the Indigo 3000 performed well against competitor cars including the

Alfa Romeo Spider The Alfa Romeo Spider (105/115 series) is a two-seater, front-engined, rear-drive roadster (automobile), roadster manufactured and marketed by Alfa Romeo from 1966 to 1994 in four distinct generations, or "series", each with modifications rangin ...

and

BMW Z3 The BMW Z3 is a range of two-seater sports cars which was produced from 1995 to 2002. The body styles of the range are: * 2-door roadster (automobile), roadster (E36/7 model code) * 2-door coupé (E36/8 model code) The Z3 was based on the BMW 3 ...

. The Indigo 3000 was awarded the "Utmärkt Svensk Form" ('Excellent Swedish Design') in September. The company planned to produce 50 cars in 1996, 250 in 1997 and reaching a maximum manufacture of 500 vehicles per year from 1998 onwards. The following year, Jösse Car opened their new factory in

Åmål Åmål () is a urban areas of Sweden, locality and the seat of Åmål Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 9,065 inhabitants in 2010. It is situated on the western shore of Vänern. In 2005 Åmål received second prize in the in ...

. The company also displayed the Indigo 3000 at

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1997 in

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. They would manufacture a total of 44 cars between 1996 and 1999 before declaring bankruptcy in 2003. In 2013, a decade after Jösse Car folded, co-founder Lidmalm spoke about his experiences during the summer speaker series on

Sveriges Radio P4 P4 (''pe fyra'') is a national radio channel produced by the Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio. P4 was started in 1987 as a network of regional stations, but national programming was added in 1993 when P3 was relaunched as a specialist you ...

. He was a key support of an Indigo 3000 rally in Sweden during the summer of 2021. 20 of the original 44 cars were reuinited.

Ownership and funding

In 1996, the company ownership was split 75% to Lindmalm and 25% to Fogelberg. At the time their shareholding was worth a combined 1million SKr. Funding was provided by the

Swedish Government The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden () is the national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's executive authority. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and their cabinet ministers (). The Government is responsible for its actions ...

via the Almi fund, and 6.5million SKr from a regional Swedish bank.

Indigo 3000

The Indigo 3000 is a Swedish sports car produced by Jösse Car from 1996–2000. 44 working cars were produced and it was the only car manufactured by Jösse Car before they folded. The Indigo 3000 is a two-seat, rear-wheel drive roadster powered by a 3.0 L, all aluminum, Volvo

straight-six engine A straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balanc ...

which is connected to a Volvo 960 gearbox driving the rear wheels. It could accelerate from 0-60 mph (0-97 km/h) in 6.5 seconds and has a claimed top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph).

References

External Links

Indigo 3000 Brochure
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Sweden Sports car manufacturers Vehicle_manufacturing_companies_established_in_1994 Vehicle_manufacturing_companies_disestablished_in_2003 Swedish_brands Arvika Municipality Åmål Municipality {{motorvehicle-company-stub