{"id":42468,"date":"2011-09-13T13:38:01","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T17:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=42468"},"modified":"2011-09-13T13:38:01","modified_gmt":"2011-09-13T17:38:01","slug":"first-look-volvo-concept-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2011\/09\/first-look-volvo-concept-you\/","title":{"rendered":"First Look: Volvo Concept You"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Volvo's Concept You will help define the future design language for the automaker -- and should become its next flagship sedan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Remember when Volvo had a simple design formula: make them square and boxy? Well, not anymore.\u00a0 The maker has been steadily transforming its visual image as it rolls out a series of new models like the S60 R-Design and, at this year\u2019s Frankfurt Motor Show, the Concept You.<\/p>\n

As the name implies, the big Volvo on display at the Frankfurt Messe is a prototype, but one that CEO Stefan Jacoby says is a \u201cglimpse of the future of the Volvo company.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s clearly been a lot going on at Volvo of late.\u00a0 The maker is just celebrating its first year since being sold by Ford Motor Co. to the ambitious Chinese holding company that also produces China\u2019s domestic Geely brand.<\/p>\n

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A Good Investment - And its Free!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With its parent\u2019s support, Jacoby has outlined an aggressive agenda which calls for a huge growth spurt \u2013 to 800,000 vehicles annually, which would put it in the big leagues with luxury marques like Lexus, BMW or Audi. And the elegant Concept You underscores Jacoby\u2019s desire to take Volvo up-market in the process.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Volvo will gauging the reaction of showgoers to features like the Concept You's front end.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The show car is a coupe-like fastback that design director Peter Horbury notes has been influenced as much by evolving Chinese tastes as Western trends.\u00a0 A key to meeting the marque\u2019s sales mandate is to dramatically boost sales in what is now the world\u2019s largest automotive market.<\/p>\n

And working with Geely, Volvo is already setting up a pair of plants in China, the first of which will go into production by 2013.\u00a0 Two years later, Jacoby tells TheDetroitBureau.com, he expects to have a production version of the Concept You rolling out of that plant, and possibly also at Volvo\u2019s Swedish factories.<\/p>\n

So, getting it absolutely right is absolutely essential, and while the Frankfurt show car is \u201cclose\u201d to where the ultimate production model will go, Horbury cautions there\u2019s room \u2013 and time \u2013 for changes. \u201cWe want to use this concept to see how people react.\u201d<\/p>\n

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CEO Stefan Jacoby wants to drive Volvo up-market in his bid to boost sales to 800,000 annually.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The look is decidedly more upbeat than even Volvo\u2019s current flagship, the S80, and it boasts a more distinctive and distinguished front end, as well as a roofline that brings to mind the likes of the latest Mercedes-Benz CLS or Audi A7.<\/p>\n

Curiously, former Ford designer Horbury has gone with the same sort of slit-style headlamps that showed up the same day on Ford\u2019s Evos Concept.\u00a0 They emphasize a very high-tech feel rather than the increasingly dated \u201cjewel-like\u201d oversized headlights so many automakers have become wedded to.<\/p>\n

The slight bubble to the hood, the dual air intakes under the familiar Volvo grille and the curvaceous yet muscular haunches all lend a sense of dynamism and exclusivity to the Concept You.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the car is loaded with an array of high-tech features.\u00a0 There\u2019s the requisite LCD screen atop the center stack as well as a Head-Up Display, or HUD, while the gauge cluster is reconfigurable.\u00a0 And that doesn\u2019t mean spending 10 minutes figuring out how to program the switch from one background color to another.<\/p>\n

Infrared cameras constantly watch both the driver\u2019s eyes and hands to sense what is likely being looked at or touched.\u00a0 The system can put unnecessary read-outs to sleep or automatically switch to a sports-oriented display when you\u2019re driving hard \u2013 even putting your cellphone into do-not-disturb mode.<\/p>\n

Intent on taking a lead in green technology, as well as its long-running reputation for safety leadership, Volvo says it expects to trim the weight of the production Concept You by as much as 350 pounds compared to the typical vehicle in its class.<\/p>\n

Some key features of the Concept You likely won\u2019t make it into production, notably the rear \u201csuicide doors,\u201d but barring an unexpected thumbs down from show-goers much of what\u2019s on display in Frankfurt will likely reappear at Volvo\u2019s new plant in China in less than four years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember when Volvo had a simple design formula: make them square and boxy? Well, not anymore. The maker is likely to take many motorists by surprise with the sleek and decidedly up-market Concept You which, TheDetroitBureau.com reports, will ultimately becoming Volvo’s flagship by 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42468"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=42468"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=42468"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=42468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}