As Volvo is getting back on its feet and readying a new product and design offensive, we are getting signs of where the Scandinavian brand is headed.
A new design language and an emphasis on hybrid powertrains is coming to the forefront. For these both, the new Volvo Concept Coupe, says a thousand words.
Already being compared to the iconic P1800 sports car, the Volvo Concept Coupe the company says is the first of three concept cars that showcase the direction Volvo will take in coming years with their new Scalable Product Architecture.
New design chief Thomas Ingenlath has been charged with redesigning the product line and taking the company in a more emotional direction. The Concept Coupe achieves the goal of outlining a new brand design language well.
No longer a division of Ford Motor Company, this is the first showing of Volvo’s new in-house platform since the two companies split. The Scalable Product Architecture Volvo says, “liberates” their designers and engineers from the limitations of previous shared platforms.
The look is bolder and more mass intensive, similar to the blockiness we saw in the 1980’s and 1990’s but with more emotion than before. The Concept Coupe has a low profile which is accentuated by large 21” wheels.
Its face signals new Volvo design DNA with new T-shaped daytime running lights. Volvo says this is a solid new design direction for their future products.
Inside is a portrait style touch screen center stack which is much like that of Tesla, a touch that would go a long way to improving ease of use over current Volvo products. A crystal shift knob and other jeweled details bring the luxury quotient up a bit as well.
Under the hood is another forerunner of future Volvo product, and a potential game changing move for the company. It features a four-cylinder gasoline plug-in hybrid powertrain that Volvo says will achieve power of a V8 engine.
The powertrain which Volvo calls Drive-E is comprised of a 2.0 liter four-cylinder engine with both a supercharger and a turbocharger which drives the front wheels.
Combined with an electric motor at the rear wheels, the total system power is in the neighborhood of 400 horsepower and 440 lb.-ft of torque.
We expect to see more of Drive-E in the near future as the company readies a number of products for the coming year which will offer it.
See a full photo gallery and report at Motoring2.com
