Started in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in October 1897 as a manufacturer of early Brass Era automobiles, and trucks from 1899, Autocar is the oldest surviving motor vehicle brand in the Western Hemisphere.

White Motors was in turn taken over 28 years later by Volvo Trucks of Sweden in 1981, with Autocar continuing as a separate division.

Autocar now builds four models of custom-engineered heavy-duty trucks and has regained leading positions in several vocational segments.

[6][7] In 1899 the company, now renamed Autocar, built the first motor truck ever produced for sale in North America.

The horizontal-mounted flat twin engine, situated at the front of the car, produced 11 hp (8.2 kW).

At special meeting on June 19, 1906, held at 711 Arcade Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the board authorized the hiring of a general manager by the name of Harry A. Gillis at a salary of $10,000 per year.

The first model, the Type XVII, had a 97-inch wheelbase, a one and a half-ton capacity, and a two-cylinder gasoline engine under the seat.

In 1929, Autocar sold 3300 units, though the number fell to 1000 in 1932 and continued to decline during the Great Depression.

Autocar ranked 85th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.

The 1964 AP19 shown in September 2007 at a Golden Age Truck Museum exhibit "has a GCW of 900,000 lbs, a 30,000lb front axle, planetary rear axles rated at 200,000 lbs, and was originally powered with a 525 HP Cummins V-12 diesel which was later replaced with a 6-cylinder Cummins KT rated at 750 HP."

[3] Shortly after the move to Utah in 1980, with White insolvent, in 1981 AB Volvo acquired the U.S. assets and brands to become Volvo-White LLC.

Volvo-White bought GMC's heavy truck business in 1987 creating the Volvo WhiteGMC brand.

Volvo later dropped any reference to White but used the Autocar bow-tie emblem on the radiator and hood side panels.

Volvo agreed to sell select designs for the Xpeditor low cab-forward severe-duty products, intellectual properties, and the Autocar brand to Highland Park, Illinois-based Grand Vehicle Works Holdings, LLC (GVW Group).

The company's severe-duty ACX model offers features ranging from improved ergonomic cabs, integrated controls, and complex multiple axle configurations, up to triple-steer, triple-drive 12x6 trucks weighing over 100,000 lbs.

Autocar announced on September 13, 2017, that it had opened a second, 1.2 million square-foot manufacturing site in Birmingham, Alabama.

[12] Since 2012, Autocar also builds a medium-duty vocational truck series called the Xpert (ACMD).

The relaunched DC is completely new and reported to have several unique features, such as the first 160,000 PSI steel frame rails, an upgraded electrical system, and a cab that fits three workers and is designed for serviceability, with a full steel structure inside the dashboard and aluminum sheets as dash panels.