Driving new SUV concepts forward Volvo

DRIVING NEW SUV

CONCEPTS FORWARD

Volvo’s latest concept car, the XC Coupe, has taken the motoring world by storm with its special sports capabilities, futuristic styling and contemporary safety profile. Philip Yorke takes a closer look at Volvo’s latest innovative Coupe range and at a company that continues to win prestigious awards by setting new standards in the automotive industry.

The Volvo Car Corporation was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1927 by Gustav Larson and Assar Gabrielsson. Their pioneering spirit and innovative genius lives on today in every aspect of the company’s broad range of automotive products. Since that time the company has delivered a constant stream of innovative cars equipped with ground-breaking design features. Volvo Car’s vision is to be the world’s most progressive premium car brand.

Until 1999, the company formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group, before being acquired by the Ford Motor Company. Today the Volvo Car Group is owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding of China which purchased the company in 2010. In 2012 Volvo Cars sold almost half a million vehicles worldwide, with its main markets being the USA, Sweden, China, Germany and the UK.

All eyes on Volvo

Testament to Volvo’s continuing commitment to innovation and new technology has been its launch of the most advanced SUV range to date at the 2014 Detroit Motor show. At the international trade fair staged earlier this year, the Volvo concept XC Coupe was awarded the title ‘Best Concept Car’ by the ‘EyesON Design Awards’, whilst Volvo’s most recent concept vehicle, the ‘XC90’ won the coveted award for ‘Best use of colour, Graphics and Materials’.

The 2014 North American International Auto Show held in Detroit, hosted the world premiere of Volvo’s new Concept XC Coupe, which is the second of three new concept cars created by Volvo. The Concept XC Coupe demonstrates the design potential of the company’s new Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) that will form the basis for the design of cars developed by Volvo in the future, starting

with the all-new Volvo XC90 which premieres later this year.

Thomas Ingenlath, Senior Vice President Design at Volvo Cars said, “I am honoured and very happy of course. This is very encouraging and it shows that Volvo’s new design direction is appreciated not only by the general public and the press, but also by the leading people in the car design business, and Volvo Cars has only just started its exciting new journey with a brand new design language.”

The ‘EyesON’ Design Award ceremony is an annual event that takes place in conjunction with the Detroit Motor Show. The jury includes a prominent group of designers, auto makers and leading academics.

High-tech sports gear

Volvo’s Concept XC Coupe was inspired by the design of modern sports equipment and is a sophisticated and capable vehicle designed for people with an active lifestyle. This second concept car from Volvo demonstrates how innovative engineering makes it possible to reinforce the company’s world-beating safety profile without compromising on design, size or weight. This is largely due to the extensive use of high-strength boron steel and structures with a new and ingenious decoupling, which means that Volvo can make cars more compact and even safer at the same time.

The new car’s connection with modern, high-tech sports gear is very apparent. In order to strike a balance between aesthetics and functionality, the Volvo design team has also given traditional SUV elements such as side mouldings and skid-plates a more modern interpretation that integrates them into the sleek design and keeps them flush with the surrounding body areas. In 1997 Volvo Cars paved the way for a completely new automotive segment with its V70 Cross Country series which was the first of a new breed of sports vehicle.

The range has been continuously developed and upgraded since then and currently ranges from the Volvo Cross Country, via the XC60 and XC70 to the new XC90. “With the Volvo Concept XC Coupe, we take this unique blend of capable ruggedness and expressive elegance up to a new sportier attitude,” added Ingenlath.

Enhancing supply chain efficiency

Successful companies like Volvo can gain additional business advantages by not only caring for its customers, employees and the environment, but also for society as a whole. Volvo Car’s values, such as sustainable development, human rights, good terms of employment and ethical business practices are also reflected as its clear requirements for all Volvo suppliers. This covers the entire value chain, wherever the supplier stage represents a key link.

The emphasis on quality, product development, cost-efficiency, delivery capacity and environmental care are all high priorities at Volvo and this is reflected in the company’s ‘Excellence Award’ (the VQE Award). This represents the status that Volvo Cars expects

from all its suppliers in order for them to meet its high quality global standards.

A recent example of an outstanding achievement by a key Volvo supplier was the VQE Award presented to Permaniova Lasersystem AB. This is a Swedish integrator of robotised laser systems for metal processing and in particular for welding, 3D cutting, brazing and cladding. The award was given for the company’s roof-welding laser station for the Volvo XC90. For the first time, roofto-side alignment was to be welded with a special overlap joint. This was to produce a weld-seam that could easily be covered with a PVC layer. This could then be painted in any colour, without adding the costly plastic strip in a matching colour. In a mutual R&D project, Permaniva developed the necessary laser welding tool with fully integrated robotindependent seam tracking. n

For further details of the Volvo Car Group’s’ latest innovative range of vehicles and product services visit: www.volvocars.com