Apr 19

VOLVO UNVEIL CONTROVERSIAL CONCEPT “UNIVERSE” @ AUTO SHANGHAI 2011

Auto Shanghai, Automotive Design, Concept cars, Motor Shows, Show cars, Volvo Add comments

by Giancarlo Perini (c)

Volvo 2011 Concept Universe @ Auto Shanghai

Now I realise I have made a mistake to give up a visit to China for Auto Shanghai 2011. At least I would have been able to see the Volvo Concept Universe and offer you my opinion.

An opion I cannot make by just looking at the images Volvo has released with its press-release that say not many words but says nothing at all, showing a sense of embarrassment.

The poor quality of the images allow those who have not seen the Concept yet to hope for a more convincing design.

Volvo 2011 Concept Universe @ Auto Shanghai

For the time being all I can say that they remind me of the famous sentence: “There is something good and something new in it. Trouble is that what is new is not good and what is good is not new”.

Here is all Volvo had to say in its press-release:

At the Shanghai International Auto Show on Tuesday, Volvo Car Corporation presented Concept Universe, a design study for a future luxury Volvo sedan.
”Shanghai is the perfect place for the world première of a superb car that is tailor made for the most demanding luxury car buyers”, said Stefan Jacoby, President & CEO of Volvo Car Corporation.

Stefan Jacoby also revealed that the first quarter of 2011 was one of the best global sales quarters in the history of Volvo, sales figures up 13.7 percent to 106,827 cars.

”This is the next step in the proud history of luxury Volvo sedans”, said Stefan Jacoby before revealing the Concept Universe.

He continued:
”We will listen very carefully to what the Chinese car buyers think of the design. Later, we will also show the Concept Universe in other parts of the world. This brings it into the global context we are aiming for with all our cars.”

At the press conference in Shanghai Stefan Jacoby also announced that Volvo Car Corporation is developing an all-new platform architecture for the next generation cars from Volvo: SPA – Scalable Platform Architecture.

”When our next luxury sedan arrives in a few years, it will be among the first Volvos built on our new Scalable Platform Architecture. All our large and mid-size cars will eventually be based on SPA.”

Stefan Jacoby also revealed that the 2010 full year result for Volvo Car Corporation will show a profit when communicated in a few weeks time.

Photo Gallery

  • Daniel

    seriously uncool

  • Lucian Rosca

    It seems that Volvo has a different approach to the concept car development. While most of the car makers (especially the Detroit 3) build very flashy concepts, with no regard to real world constraits, and from there the design is scaled down to fit the production criteria, almost to the point of looking like a compromise, Volvo puts a lot of the production constraits already in its first ideas and builds up from there until the production vehicle looks right.
    Is any approach better than the other? No. How you reach the target is not that important, what matters is to reach the target.

    Volvo's approach is penalized at the very beginning, like in this case a show car which stil needs a lot of work to be convincing. In this specific case, I suspect manpower and time were also a factor in the overall result.
    The other approach has a very strong, initial impact, advertisment driven. It's very effective for publicity, but by the time the production design comes out, the flashiness and newness is mostly lost.

    This is perhaps an area a lot of design studios don't know how to address. How to tranfer new, fresh ideas from concept to production without compromising them. The solution is not simple, it requires knwledgeble people with a lot of cross-functional experience and also new design processes to support it. It requires process innovation.

  • GP of Italy

    I agree.

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    Wow this looks ace, what a design.

    Admittidley to me this looks like Volvo have designed a car that looks like a cross between am Audi and a Mustang! …Not a bad combination at all eh! :-) I like a lot.

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