Volvo Concept Coupe to debut at Frankfurt Motor Show

The elegant new Volvo Concept Coupe is the first of a series of three concept cars to be revealed by Volvo featuring the new Scalable Product Architecture (SPA). It is the first design by the new Senior Vice President Thomas Ingenlath since he joined the company last year, and will debut at this year's Frankfurt Motor Show.

Developed in-house, the new Scalable Product Architecture liberates Volvo’s designers and engineers from the limitations of previous cross-brand platforms (sharing platforms with Ford). The SPA reveals how Volvo can shape their cars on their own and also paves the way for the introduction of the all-new Volvo XC90 in 2014.

Visually, the car looks elegant and exudes class. The face is characterised by a new topography on the bonnet and the floating grille. T-shaped DRL lights look brilliant and one can expect all Volvos of the future to be characterised by similar looking ones. With the distance between the dashboard and the front axle extended and the windshield moved slightly rearwards, the Concept Coupe clearly echos the design of the Volvo P1800, a great looking car from the 1960s.

The Concept Coupe is laden with good quality materials on the inside. There is leather on the instrument panel, inlays made of naturally aged wood and dark blue woven carpets blended with machined metal details. A large portrait touch-screen in the centre does away with almost all buttons keeping the console as minimalist as possible. There is also a head-up display in front of the driver.

A petrol plug-in hybrid driveline is what powers the concept. It is basically a two-litre Drive-E petrol engine with a supercharger and turbocharger working in tandem. The petrol engine is teamed with an electric motor on the rear axle. This gives it a total output of around 400PS and over 600Nm of torque.