Volvo Concept Recharge interior revealed – UPDATE

UPDATE, November 19: Volvo has revealed the interior of its Concept Recharge, almost half a year after the vehicle made its debut.

The concept car’s interior showcases Volvo’s quest to reduce its carbon footprint at every opportunity, with sustainably-sourced materials utilised throughout.

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The floor and lower doors are covered in a carpet made from 100 per cent wool, with lightweight composites made from linseed replacing much of the interior plastics.

A new material called Nordico has been created by Volvo, which it describes as a “soft material made from bio-based and recycled ingredients that come from sustainable forests in Sweden and Finland, providing a CO2 footprint that is 74 per cent lower than leather”.

By using these products, when combined with the use of clean energy, Volvo says it can reduce a car’s overall CO2 impact by as much as 80 per cent when compared to a 2018 Volvo XC60.

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The story to here

July 2: Volvo has outlined its manifesto for the next generation of electric vehicles coming off its production lines, showing off the Concept Recharge EV.

A look at Volvo's dedicated EV platform, Concept Recharge features a totally flat floor, differing from the Swedish company's current line-up of fully-electric vehicles which have to share the same architecture as its range of internal combustion engine powered cars.

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By implementing a flat floor and locating the battery pack underneath it, as well as not having an engine up front to worry about, Volvo has decreased overhangs at the front and rear, increasing interior space for all occupants.

Featuring the new Volvo design language which includes the 'Thor's Hammer' style headlights, Concept Recharge borrows elements from the existing XC40, XC60 and XC90 range, such as the vertical rear lights.

As with the current Volvo range, the concept features a vertical infotainment screen rather than the horizontal units found in other cars, this one measuring at 15 inches and standing out against a relatively minimalist dash design.

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The Concept Recharge announcement is a part of a wider push from Volvo in its transition to EVs, having recently entered into joint partnerships to develop batteries and fossil-free steel.

It is also committed to bringing more aspects of vehicle development in-house, creating its own VolvoCars.OS operating system which will be used for the infotainment system, general computing, vision processing and artificial intelligence, underpinning Volvo's vehicles starting with a new model to be introduced in 2022.

The 2022 target is consistent in a lot of Volvo's goals, saying last month its next generation of EVs would utilise LiDAR technology for its autonomous driving systems from next year, opting for the laser-based system over the radars used by rival companies such as Tesla.

While testing will be undertaken by Volvo before it rolls the technology out on the road, it is aiming to gain a majority of its data from real-world scenarios, allowing it to validate a large batch of information much faster than it would otherwise be able to on a test track in limited settings.

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