It’s YOLO for the YCC. The Volvo Concept Car made for women by women
Normally our Concept Car features involves looking through a crystal ball into the future, but in this instance we find ourselves looking back at a unique, nostalgic concept from the naugties. Way back in 2002, Volvo tqasked a group of five women to build the ultimate car for women’ Before we jump on the feminist bandwagon let’s reality check, this was 16-years ago, besides Michelle Mouton there weren’t many headline making women in the automotive industry. This is pre-Leena Gade’s winning ways with team Audi Joest at LeMans. Pre-Monisha Kaltenborn’s leading light at Sauber F1. Pre-Vicky Butler-Henderson and her skills and back when Sabine was still driving the ‘Ring Taxi.
It was called the Volvo Your Concept Car and made landfall in 2004, while it’s not exactly to taste currently, it was at the forefront of design 14-years ago. It looks like it was based on the pre-Twilight C30, extended into a coupe with some Cross-Country body cladding for good measure. The team focused on five key areas: storage, ease of access, visibility, choices and minimal maintenance.
This YCC really had some genius ideas that do not go amiss today. They relocated the gear lever to the dash, this would free up space for the centre cubby to be large enough to accommodate handbags out of sight. This right here would go a long way towards stopping smash and grab crimes nowadays. The ride height was high (oh so derigeur nowadays) and side bolsters on the seat lowers away when exiting and envelops you when entering the vehicle, for that all-important cossetting feeling.
Got an arm’s worth of paperwork? The gull-wing doors will open automatically when you stand at the rear wheel and it senses the key. This sure beats looking like an idiot as you flail your foot around underneath the rear of the car like some sort of Christiano Ronaldo-wannabe, like so many easy access systems demand nowadays.
The car performing a self-diagnostics test to inform of the next service, self-parking tech and stop-start systems to save fuel and reduce emissions: these were all featured in the YCC. Seems the motor industry owes a great debt of gratitude to these forward-thinking women.
