The Designers Pt11 – Thomas Ingenlath, Volvo

2014 was the year where, in the first half we were still communicating about the new design language with concepts, while knowing the second half would be about our new production cars. It was a transition. That’s all very problematic in a way but of course you have to adjust and it worked out very well.

The early presentation of the XC90 was a proving point. This car is obviously is not following the trend for sporty SUVs. It’s much more of a stately car. It’s not trying to be a sports car on high or about being old-fashioned, it’s about being honest and truthful. That stately expression is what Range Rover is doing too. I think there will be more of this pluralism of trends in the future.

The XC90 is an interesting story because it’s been a long journey. When it became clear that in the future Volvo would not be owned by Ford any more, Volvo needed to think about a technical base for future products. In that era when it was not even clear who would be the new owner, Volvo had to establish its own Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) platform. That was of course a great thing as it’s been thoroughly thought though for Volvo. That was brilliant. And that all happened before I joined.

One of the reasons I joined Volvo was that I learned about this from its R&D people. Now I don’t have to disguise a small platform trying to be a luxury car. And then we had this very short time, a small, small window where we could really go into the XC90 and do something about the exterior and interior. Everything we established about the shapes of Volvo happened at the same time. That’s why our recent concept cars were not dreamy cars as they were so linked to what we did with the XC90.

“The whole world has a very clear idea what a good image for Volvo is. So you have thousands of people watching you to see if you do the right thing, rather than wondering what you’re going to do”

It’s not like, you join Volvo and think ‘Wow, I really have to think what kind of image I should create for this brand’. It’s the opposite. You come to a brand where the whole world has a very clear idea what a good image for Volvo is. So you have thousands of people watching you to see if you do the right thing, rather than wondering what you’re going to do. It’s been an incredible journey as a design team starting in 2012.

It was really intense. I would compare it to a battlefield. You go out there and try to save lives and there’s not much time to discuss. Now we have so much established and people have a) more understanding of what our journey is about and b) we’ve had positive feedback on our concept cars, which of course gives confidence.

Obviously we haven’t just done the XC90 either. Design-wise, the cars that come out in 2016 are already ‘described’ completely, but beyond that, 2017, ’18, ’19 is where we are really exploring. It’s a very nice place, playing and improvising. I will be really really proud in 2018 when the world sees what the whole journey is about, because this is only one part of it.

I like the mixture of conceptual and production thinking. In fact as soon as I joined Volvo I stopped any strict split between concept and production. Now many concept designers are in charge of production programmes because I want this spirit in our production cars. It’s all about the production cars now.

We have an incredible amount of work to do to roll-out the SPA programme and bit by bit putting our production cars out. That is what the next three years are all about. I think the big journey the industry is on, concerns modern technology in the car. It’s all about connectivity, autonomous driving, these kinds of features. How we actually interact with customers through technology in their daily life. It’s a big, big part of our job now.

Thomas Ingenlath

Name Thomas Ingenlath
Role VP design, Volvo
Age, nationality 51, German
Location Gothenburg, Sweden
Education Pforzheim and Royal College of Art

Thomas’s cars of 2014

Concept

1. BMW Vision Future Luxury
2. Lamborghini Asterion
3. Aston Martin Lagonda

Production

1. Citroën C4 Cactus
2. Renault Espace
3. Mazda MX-5