For the new 60 Series, Volvo opted for a more muscular exterior to stress that their mid-sized SUV is not the seven-seater luxury one the XC90 was meant to be. But the head of design team, Thomas Ingenlath, says the Swedes will go much further for their approaching compacts, which can’t simply be smaller sized, yet sportier versions of the XC60, a vehicle that they currently made sharper to separate from the range-topping XC90. Instead, they have the opportunity to go as extreme as they did with the P1800 few years earlier.
Sure enough, in 2016’s 40.1 and 40.2 concepts provided a fairly good hint of what that concept can equate to, in the upcoming XC40 and S40. In addition to promising not to be reduced versions of already present designs, these Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform-based vehicles will include a large range of 3-cylinder, hybrid and all-electric drivetrains, along with Volvo’s newest semi-autonomous safety features.
Ingenlath said:
What we will finish with the 40 cluster and the compacts is that we include a design flare to Volvo which is really different to what we finished with the 90 and 60. The 90 (XC90, S90, V90) and the 60 (XC60) are the Scandinavian premium high-end expression. But then when we pertained to the 40 I said: “Look guys … we did that now in 2 different ways, I really do not believe that it would be right for Volvo to do it a third time, and perhaps go even more stylish.” I mean, that’s absurd to do something sporty, and then you do something even sportier. I believe that’s silly. 90 and 60 has the space, that’s fine. 40 is plainly adding a brand-new part, which has to do with how we in fact treat volumes in a disruptive way. While everything is so organic and naturally grown in the 90 and 60 vehicles, in the 40s, it is much more provocative and unexpected how graphics and shapes are made up there. It is a lot more harsh, it’s much more in your face. There’s not such a smooth shift. It really comes off as a tough cut, right there, and in that method, it is more positive and more aggressive, especially how the color splits are done. At the front too, that car has much more of an intriguing attitude in it, and that’s really how in the 40 cluster, we will play and expand the scope of exactly what people think Volvo could do, in regards to design.
