PHOTOS The baddest pickup truck ever is… a Volvo?

General Motors may have stopped production earlier this year on it’s Hummer brand of sports utility vehicles, but it appears there is already a bigger, badder brand of über SUV poised to take its place, and it may surprise you to know it has it’s origins in Sweden!

That’s right, Swedish auto and truck manufacturer Volvo looks to add bada**ery to its renowned emphasis on safety with the only line of SUVs on the planet that require a CDL license! These photos were snapped at the Volvo New River Valley manufacturing plant in Dublin, Virginia where the customized orange VHD 430 posed for photos with family members of Volvo workers.

Actually, there are no plans for Volvo to start manufacturing a line of these behemoth pick-up trucks, although I have no doubts there would be a three-year waiting list to get one starting with the likes of Kid Rock and P Diddy! (I couldn’t afford to get on the list myself, but I would certainly buy the Matchbox version at Wal-Mart!)

According to our source at the plant the Super-Truck was built for the manager of the facility who wanted something impressive to drive to the airport when picking up corporate executives arriving from Sweden.

The pick-up is a modified version of Volvo’s VHD 430. Here’s a photo of an actual VHD 430 with a slightly larger bed followed by a side-by-side with Volvosaurus:

And in case you were wondering what the specs are on Volvosaurus, Volvo’s website says the VHD 430 has up to 485 horsepower and gets a little less than 7 miles per gallon. I’m not sure if this thing has the regular VHD 430 accouterments under the hood, but something tells me this plant manager didn’t go out of his way to put a smaller engine in there!

I think they should add some maroon detailing and use Volvosaurus during Virginia Tech football games! The campus is right down the road and what says “engineering” better than an over-sized customized Swedish sports utility vehicle?!?

** A special thanks to the hard-working, good-spirited folks who provided us with these great photos!