History in the Making: A Personal Look at Volvos YCC in Vancouver

Volvo recently made its first North American stop in Vancouver, B.C., Canada to showcase a car that has been years in the making, and in so doing become history in the making. Better known as YCC, or "Your Concept Car," it is the first concept car that has been completely designed by women. The YCC debuted last year for the first time in Geneva and has received much attention from industry professionals to car enthusiasts.

The idea of an all-women team to design and make all the decisions for a concept car was brought to the table at Volvo in the autumn of 2001. In December 2002, after preliminary studies, YCC was given the green light and then started the 14 month mission.

After YCC was put into action, a team of nine was formed and in charge of the whole car; from decision making, to exterior styling, to interior trim, it was all women.

In order to put the ideas onto paper, Tatiana Butovitsch Temm, the project communications manager commented, "For the first few weeks, we just talked. We talked and talked and talked, and at one point I thought, Oh dear, this is never going to get off the ground. But then it all started to gel. And when we got deeper into the project, into the execution, we found that it was smooth sailing because we had already considered most of the potential problems and addressed them before we got started."

Through the collaboration of ideas sprung the thesis for the project. Temm remarked, at a recent press conference in Vancouver, that the thesis came from the thought that, "if you meet the expectations of women, you exceed the expectations of men." The car is built with everything a man would want, and then some to fulfill the needs of women.

Furthermore, "If you divide the car-buying world into three segments: budget, mid-market and premium, our customer research shows that the woman buyer in the premium segment is the most demanding of all customer categories," says Maria Widell Christiansen, Project Manager, Design.

As Freud would ask, or even Mel Gibson from that blockbuster movie, "what do women want?" The team of designers, throughout their planning stages, surveyed many women to find out what they really want in a car. The response was overwhelming, so the design team took those ideas and created a car that met a womans core needs in order to make life practical, stylish and above all, easy. "Easy access to the car interior was high on the target group wish list."

Storage space is also high on the priority list, which is why the YCC comes with cinema seating, normally the seat bottoms are folded up until someone wants to sit in them. Also, the gear levers are located on the steering wheel and the parking brake is electronic, allowing the individual to use the multiple storage compartments in between the two front seats. Besides, the most common area for storing personal belongings a woman would want on hand is in that location.

Project manager Camilla Palmertz further commented, "High on the list of customer wants is a car with good visibility and is easy to maneuver. So we in the management team said to Ana (Ana Rosen who is the exterior designer of the YCC) please put four corners on it. So she did. She inverted the Volvo V-hood (which is reminiscent of the Volvo P1800), so the hood goes down, and she lifted up the fenders in such a way that she got two corners on the front. Then she made a glass roof all over, all the way to the back, so you can back up and know where your car is." Furthermore, the B-pillars are pushed back for a larger side window and better blind spot visibility, and the chassis raises 60 mm (2.4 inches) for those who like to drive higher up.

Whether driving higher up or lower, the hypothetical engine designed to power the YCC is a low-emission 215-horsepower, five-cylinder PZEV unit with an Integrated Starter-Generator (ISG). The ISG system has numerous advantages, "It prevents unnecessary idling because the engine can be shut off automatically when waiting at places like traffic lights. It comes to life again as soon as the driver presses the accelerator. It also provides extra torque at low revs, which means maximum power right from the start. And the ISG provides a 60 V power supply, giving scope for even greater user convenience," added Palmertz.

The YCC has a six-speed Powershift gearbox. You can either choose the fully automatic mode, or use the controls on the steering column to change gear.

Because the project is called "Your Concept Car," it is all about choices, and the ability to tailor it to the individual, especially within the interior, allows for personal taste to enter the equation. By touching one of the eight exchangeable seat pad options, the interior colour scheme will change from brown leather, to linen, or to wool boucle, while each new motif comes with a matching floor mat and which, again, is easily exchangeable due to its magnetic adhesion configuration.

Another way to make life easy comes with the name of Egrovision (patent pending), an innovative program designed for the YCC. At the Volvo dealership, a customers entire body is scanned and such measurements as height, leg length, and arm length are used to determine a personalized driving position that allows for optimal vision. Before getting into the car, the seating position, steering wheel and pedals are pulled to their furthermost position enabling the driver to easily enter and exit the car. Once seated, the seats, steering wheel, headrest, seatbelt anchor and pedals adjust to the customers measurements creating the most favorable driving experience possible.

The YCC truly is an exceptional vehicle made by exceptional women. I am not hyperbolizing when I say that these women have looked at every angle of this vehicle and asked themselves, "What can we do here to make it even better? What can we do thats never been done before?"

While the YCC was never intended to be a production model and still isnt, the team hopes that ideas which have initiated will be introduced into future Volvos. I know I would love gull-wing doors, Ergovision and an automatic fuel tank lid on my next sports coupe. Wouldnt you?

The YCC was on display at Vancouvers Storyeum, in historic Gastown prior to September 1st, 2005. It now continues its world tour to Los Angeles and then to Europe.