There are those of you who will consider both estates and Volvos as being distinctly unsexy. To you we say, how about this? This is the utterly gorgeous Estate Concept that Volvo will reveal at next week's Geneva Motor Show and if there has been a better looking shooting brake over the past few years, we haven't seen it.
The odd thing is that it doesn't actually preview a new estate model from the Swedish firm. Oh sure, much of the styling will make it through to the next-generation V60 and V70 (if there is a next-gen V70 - Volvo is still mulling replacing that model with a crossover version as US estate sales continue to fall), but actually it's in Geneva to do two jobs. Well, three if you count looking as good as a chocolate dipped Scarlett Johansson.
Job one is to be a further preview of the new XC90's styling. That crucial new model will go on sale at the end of this year and the Estate Concept is the third (after the Concept Coupé and XC Coupé SUV concepts) show car to preview the XC90's styling, as well as its mechanical underpinnings. Those underpinnings include Volvo's clever and flexible new scalable architecture, which will eventually be the building block for all models larger than a V40 and the rather excellent new range of 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines.
Job two is to preview a new interior. Now, Volvo has been pretty good at doing delightful cabins over the years, but here is the first step-change since the 2003 S40's minimalist cabin layout. Minimalist doesn't even really begin to cover it as almost all buttons (save for radio on/off, volume, window heating and hazard flashers) are done away with and all the other controls clustered onto a new iPad-style tablet.
Now, we've seen plenty of in-car touch screens that look great in the dealership but prove fiddly and distracting on the road. Not this one says Volvo. The various controls are arranged into four groups (infotainment, heating and ventilation, satnav and telephone) that are stacked in a tile layout. Hover your finger near the tile you need and it enlarges, opening up all the control surfaces and Volvo claims that it's both intuitive and safe to use. "The basic idea is to organize controls and information in a perfectly intuitive and user-friendly way. Everything is exactly where you expect it to be, making the drive more enjoyable, efficient, and safe," says Thomas Ingenlath, Senior Vice President Design at Volvo Car Group. "The new user interface is designed to create a smooth, logical and safe interaction between the driver and the car. This goes far beyond just putting a large tablet in the centre of the dashboard. We have created a digital environment that is fully integrated in the car.
"Creating this crystal clear, yet calm, environment is a core part of our digital craftsmanship. It is fine for an ordinary tablet to fight for your full attention but a touch screen in a car is very different. Information must be clear and user-friendly, without turning up the visual volume so much that you risk losing focus on the road. This also makes it easier to make really urgent information, such as a warning, much more distinctive."
Anything else?
The rest of the interior, inspired by Scandinavian living rooms, of course, features a panoramic glass roof, a new two-spoke steering wheel, wool carpets, naturally-treated wood and leather and groovy orange seatbelts. You can safely expect it to be largely recreated in the new XC90 when it arrives at year's end.