As Volvo unveiled its superb Concept Estate here in Geneva, its Concept Coupe and Concept XC siblings looked down on the final piece of their triumvirate from the top floor of the brand’s show stand. But the interesting back story is how these three have been shrewdly created on a very limited budget.
Design director Thomas Ingenlath was given the budget to create one-and-a-half concept cars i.e. a full concept and a separate hard model. The problem was that his strategy required three cars to give an impression of the brand’s new direction. His solution is inspired.
The blue Coupe Concept that appeared in Frankfurt was subsequently modified into the Concept Estate we see here – they are the same car. Meanwhile the Concept Coupe that appears here is a simple mock-up (not that you can tell from ground level), while the Concept XC – shown in Detroit – was the ‘half’ car Ingenlath had budget for.
It must have been tough seeing the original show car attacked with an angle grinder to turn it into a wagon but, as the Estate was always seen as the most important of the three, this strategy – like Volvo’s new direction – is very smart.