Volvo Concept Estate Shows Clues for New XC90

April 1, 2014

John Kendall

Concept Estate is the third Volvo concept in a year showing how future larger Volvos might look.

News that Volvo would be adopting Apple’s CarPlay graphical interface system, demonstrated in the company’s latest concept at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, gained almost as much attention as the concept car itself. Named simply the Concept Estate, the design study is the third show concept from Volvo in the last year. But unlike its predecessors, it presented more than a rendition of the car’s exterior, partly so that it could demonstrate the touchscreen system that will incorporate CarPlay and show how it’s integrated with the dash panel.

Just as the Concept Coupe shared the Volvo booth at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show last fall with Volvo’s 1960s coupe, the P1800, the Concept Estate shared the Geneva booth with a P1800ES, the elegant station wagon derivative of the P1800 that clearly influenced the design of the concept.

Inside, most switches have been replaced by a large touchscreen.

The show car shares its three-door, four-seat layout and thrust forward design of the front grille, some of which were also carried by the C30 model that ceased production last year. The design themes of the two earlier concepts are seen again in the Concept Estate through the hood shape, grille design, and headlights that feature T-shaped daytime running light guides.

Volvo points to echoes of the rear of the 1800ES in the Concept Estate, although the all-glass tailgate of the original is not part of the Concept Estate design, which features a glass roof. As Volvo has been keen to emphasize, the design features of the three recent concepts give an idea of how the forthcoming XC90 SUV replacement, due to be launched later this year, and other subsequent models will look.

Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture was introduced last year as the basis for all future large- and medium-sized Volvos. The construction follows a familiar pattern to many other modern cars in using different grade steels strategically in the architecture to provide high structural integrity.

According to Volvo, the new in-car touchscreen control system will be introduced on the new XC90 and follow in other succeeding models. The core of the system is a large touchscreen in the center stack, similar to a tablet screen. The system is designed to replace the majority of the conventional dashboard switchgear, incorporating familiar operating gestures such as pinching and swiping with new functions designed specifically for automotive use.

The only conventional switchgear remaining is that for volume, play/pause, hazard warning lights, and heated screens. Like other existing systems, from the Volkswagen Group for instance, the display interacts with the screen immediately ahead of the driver that incorporates a digital instrument display.

Volvo likens the large central display to a stack of “tiles,” one each for navigation, media, and telephone, with navigation at the top. Above these is a thin band for flagging up notifications. The digital climate controls are set below the tiles. When touched, the tile expands while the others are compressed, opening up the options for that function.

Volvo has used the same suppliers for all three concept models including Pirelli, Uniwheels, and Axalta Coating Systems for tires, wheels, and exterior paint, respectively. Inside, 3M, Autoliv, Valeo, Orrefors, and Kongsberg are among the suppliers.