Autoliv founder awarded prestigious innovation prize

Stockholm, Sweden, November 16, 2016) – – – Lennart Lindblad, founder of Autoliv, Inc. (NYSE: ALV and SSE: ALIVsdb), was awarded the 2016 Polhem Prize, Sweden’s most prestigious innovation award for cutting-edge innovations.

Lennart Lindblad invented significant improvements to the seat belt, a groundbreaking innovation that pioneered the market in the 1950’s. In 1953, Lennart started Autoservice AB. Later, the company changed name to Autoliv, and turned into an international company with more than 68,000 employees.

“We are very proud to learn that our founder has been awarded Sweden’s most prestigious innovation prize. Lennart’s initial vision of saving more lives is still present in everything we do at Autoliv. Every year, our products save more than 30,000 lives and prevent ten times as many severe injuries. The next step is to further reduce road traffic accidents with active safety systems to assist the driver to avoid an accident or reduce the speed of impact, thereby substantially mitigating the severity of injuries,” says Jan Carlson, Chairman, President and CEO of Autoliv.

Lennart Lindblad, aged 86, is still developing safety solutions. Currently, he is developing an automatic tightening solution for truck straps.

Caption: Polhem Prize Winner 2016 Lennart Lindblad together with Anna Ekström, Minister for Upper Secondary School, and Bengt Westerberg, Chairman for the Polhem Prize.


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About The Polhem Prize
The Polhem Prize (Polhemspriset) is a highly prestigious Swedish prize awarded by Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers (Sveriges Ingenjörer) for a high-level technological innovation or an ingenious solution to a technical problem.

About Autoliv
Autoliv, Inc. is the worldwide leader in automotive safety systems, and through its subsidiaries develops and manufactures automotive safety systems for all major automotive manufacturers in the world. Together with its joint ventures, Autoliv has more than 80 facilities with around 66,000 employees in 27 countries. In addition, Autoliv has 22 technical centers in nine countries around the world, with 20 test tracks, more than any other automotive safety supplier. Sales in 2015 amounted to about US $9.2 billion. Autoliv’s shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ALV) and its Swedish Depository Receipts on Nasdaq Stockholm (ALIV sdb). For more information about Autoliv, please visit our company website at www.autoliv.com.

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