What you see here are new teaser pictures pushed out by Volvo. The pictures represent a big move forward toward a more dynamic exterior design for the Swedish automaker that’s been long known as a maker of ultra-safe family cars with even safer styling.
“When I joined Volvo a year ago,” says Volvo Group head of design Thomas Ingenlath in the teaser video (below), “some people described Volvo’s design as Vanilla. In other words, nice, but not iconic or cutting edge.” Ingenlath ends the video by saying, “the vanilla days are over.”
It’s not clear if Volvo was ready to take the wraps off the C head of next month’s Frankfurt Auto Show. But after Wallpaper magazine tweeted a picture of the new concept coupe, Volvo pushed a few more teasers.
Volvo is in the middle of a big push into the 21st century. After being sold by Ford to Chinese automaker Geely, Volvo has been on a big design bent, creating a series of all-new four-cylinders that will power all Volvos in the future and a new scalable platform for its larger vehicles, including the second-gen XC90.
Rumor also has it that Geely is aiming to hit the U.S. market in the next few years with Volvo-designed cars.
Volvo recently stunned us by unveiling a prototype car that could park itself. Not just with driver input like some cars from other automakers but completely autonomously. The Volvo will drop the driver at a shopping center and go find itself a parking spot and wait to be called back to the original drop point via smartphone app.
The Volvo C coupe concept will be an important moment for Volvo so be sure to check back closer to the Frankfurt unveiling for official pictures and details.