INDIANAPOLIS — A sketch of what Volvo described as "a future Volvo electric car?" — complete with a massive and menacing front end, oversize six-spoke wheels and an angular rear end with a jutting roof — surfaced here during a supplier event late Thursday.
The sketch was on page 33 of a Volvo PowerPoint presentation during an event by lithium-ion battery manufacturer EnerDel. EnerDel will provide the electric vehicle platform for the electric Volvo C30.
When contacted by Inside Line on Friday morning, Volvo spokesman Dan Johnston explained the sketch this way: "It's just one of the designer guys in Sweden playing around. We won't have an electric vehicle that looks like an electric vehicle. It won't be like a Prius. You'll see the continuation of [our] design language on the C30."
He added: "It's just a drawing. I saw it for the first time yesterday."
However, Volvo has been pressured into building pie-in-the-sky concepts in the past. Case in point is the 2000 Volvo Safety Concept Car. Volvo shelved the concept in 2001 and stashed it in the company museum in Sweden but was dogged by so much positive buzz about the car that it eventually spun it into the Volvo C30. "Volvo was pressured to build that in the form of the C30," Johnston confirmed.
The sketch, signed by Stefan Jansson, was inserted into the presentation to illustrate a future electric vehicle, said Johnston.
EnerDel on Thursday announced that it will invest $237 million in a new manufacturing plant here in order to meet demand for advanced battery systems. EnerDel and Volvo have been collaborating on the development of the electric C30.
Inside Line says: Could Volvo be protesting too much that this is just some random doodling by one of its designers? We say build it. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent
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