Volvo Cars has attended the Automobility LA Show with a world-first: there is not a single car on the stand. It is a daring proposition, especially in vehicle-centric North America, where the subtlety of the Swedish firm’s approach might not obtain much purchase with the consumer.
Instead, the company will demonstrate its vision, redefining what a car can be.
Since motor shows were introduced, the car has always been a centrepiece, on a rotating stage, or covered by a silk sheet. Yet, cars are changing, the industry is changing and so are the expectations of people whom use cars. Volvo at Automobility LA has reflected these changes in the bravest and least cocky manner.
How consumers experience a car brand is today more important than chrome, leather, or horsepower, all of which Volvo can deliver in spades. On the Volvo stand, visitors looked to the central space, where they would have expected to find a car, only to read a simple, yet surprising statement in carved wood: ‘This Is Not A Car’.
In calling the trade show Automobility LA, the organisers were recognising the disruption affecting the motor industry. Volvo wanted to demonstrate that it received the memo and desired starting a co-operative conversation about the future of automobility. Instead of bringing a concept car, Volvo personnel talked about the concept of a car. In doing so, Volvo realised that it would not win the ‘car of the show’ award in 2018, although it is comfortable with that…mainly because Automobility LA ‘was not a car show’.
In addition to making a disruptively powerful statement, Volvo Cars showed a number of interactive demonstrations of connectivity services, such as in-car delivery, car sharing, its vision for autonomous driving (as displayed in the Volvo 360c concept) and the car access service ‘Care by Volvo’.
Chief Executive of Volvo Cars, Håkan Samuelsson, stated: “Our industry is changing. Rather than just building and selling cars, we shall really provide our customers with the freedom to move in a personal, sustainable and safe way. We offer our customers access to a car, including new attractive services, whenever and wherever they want it.”
Volvo Cars really believes in the power of strategic partnerships. With established technology companies such as Amazon, Google and Nvidia, as well as with technology startups that include Luminar and Zenuity, Volvo demonstrates innovative interaction with new types of partners.
With the new company purpose, ‘Freedom to Move’ in a personal, sustainable and safe way, Volvo sets its direction for the future. By the middle of the next decade, half of its annual car volume will be fully electric, one-third will be autonomous and Volvo will establish more than five million direct consumer relationships.
Volvo got into a bad habit, when it was snaffled-up by Ford Motor Company in the mid-1990s. Certain Americanisms, such as ‘premium’ entered its vocabulary. Under the same influence, the company assumed that it was a ‘rival’ to other ‘premium brands’. Yet, Volvo has always trodden a different pathway. Its only true influences are those that come naturally to it, such as the applications of Swedish-sourced wood, steel and hide, allied to the unmistakable elegance of Swedish style.
