Volvo YCC
Encyclopedia
Concept car
A concept vehicle or show vehicle is a car made to showcase new styling and or new technology. They are often shown at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not have a chance of being produced....
presented in 2004 at the Geneva Motor Show with the stated goal of meeting the particular needs of women drivers. In order to do so, Volvo
Volvo Cars
Volvo Car Corporation, or Volvo Personvagnar AB, is a Swedish automobile manufacturer founded in 1927, in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Volvo was originally formed as a subsidiary company to the ball bearing maker SKF. When Volvo AB was introduced on the Swedish...
assembled a design team entirely made up of women, some time in the Fall of 2001. It was a major exercise in ergonomics
Ergonomics
Ergonomics is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body, its movements, and its cognitive abilities.The International Ergonomics Association defines ergonomics as follows:...
from the perspective of a female driver. Those who were involved during the several stages of the project were: Maria Widell Christiansen, Eva-Lisa Andersson, Elna Holmberg, Maria Uggla, Camilla Palmertz, Cynthia Charwick, Anna Rosén, Lena Ekelund and Tatiana Butovitsch Temm.
On the outside the car looked, at first glance, like a mildly futuristic four seat coupé
Coupé
A coupé or coupe is a closed car body style , the precise definition of which varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and over time...
. On closer inspection one could see that there was no hood, that is, no access panel permitting access to the car’s engine. Engine maintenance required taking out the whole front end of the car body, preferably in some establishment with the required space and equipment. This was not supposed to happen often, as the engine was designed to need an oil change only after 50000 km (31,068.6 mi) and to automatically send a radio message to a garage a short time before any required maintenance. Filling the windshield washer tank was done by a capless ball valve
Ball valve
A ball valve is a valve with a spherical disc, the part of the valve which controls the flow through it. The sphere has a hole, or port, through the middle so that when the port is in line with both ends of the valve, flow will occur. When the valve is closed, the hole is perpendicular to the ends...
, right next to the capless gas tank ball valve. Volvo surveys had found (among many other things) that women drivers considered caps to be a major nuisance.
The car featured run-flat tires, like those of wheeled armoured vehicles, in order to be able to drive all the way to a garage after a puncture and thus avoid having to change a tire by the side of the road.
Entry into the car was by the means of two gull-wing door
Gull-wing door
Gull-wing door is an automotive industry term describing car doors that are hinged at the roof rather than the side, as pioneered by the 1952 Mercedes-Benz 300SL race car and its road-legal version introduced in 1954....
s on the sides. It also had an upwards opening hatchback door giving access to the trunk and cargo area. All three doors were motorized for a sensor-based “keyless” entry. Pressing on a single button on the keychain automatically opened the nearest door, making it easy for somebody holding bags of groceries or other sundries to get the things in the car without putting anything on the pavement or the sidewalk.
The interior was maximized for easy storage and good looks. All of the textile panels or textile parts such as the seat pads or the door sides could be removed easily to change the color schemes and vary textures. The head rests had indentations to accommodate pony tails. The shifting column and the hand brake were removed from the center console to give the front seat passengers easier access to the large storage compartments located within the dashboard. The rear seat could fold up, as in some movie houses and theaters or as is the case with the jump seat of some planes and limousines, making it easy for the driver to get a fairly big item in the car without opening the hatchback.
The bumpers and body cladding were made from tough, dent-resistant materials. The hybrid engine was economical and powerful. The five-cylinder engine produced 215 bhp.