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If you look at the dashboard area, you’ll realise that there’s a lot of textures that we have played around with. Just like the Swedish landscape, where rock emerges from a bed of grass, here’s where the hard-looking surface rises up from the softer background’, says Jonathan Disley, programme chief designer, interior, as he runs his hands over the XC60’s interiors. ‘It’s heavily influenced by Scandinavian design’, he says. I strain to see the same stuff through his eyes, but all I see is a spot of grey, acres of black and some brushed aluminium trimmings. Sigh. Maybe that’s because I’m a thoroughbred Indian.
In Sweden, invited by Volvo to drive the XC60 that’s slated to land on Indian shores soon, I stand beside the vehicle, realising the eye for the minutest details that the design team seems to have. Fedde Talsma, the mind behind the exterior of the XC60, ushers me to the front of the Volvo. ‘We have increased the size of the Volvo badge on the grille, because we wanted it to be more identifiable on the road.’ Okay, so it seems a tad bigger, but not by that much. Then we hop to the rear and Fedde tells me how the design of the tail lights keeps the Volvo design heritage intact, but now imparts a stronger vibe to the car. Now, this I can relate to.
Look at the XC60 and you can mistake it for no other. Yet, it’s quite un-Volvo in the way the lines curve rather than go box-straight. This is a good looking vehicle, whichever angle you might look at it from. The shoulders of the car are broad and brawny, making you realise how even the otherwise diminutively built Napoleon seemed imposing with the huge shoulder pads sewn under his uniform. The roof line rises up as it reaches towards the rear, where it tapers downward with a graceful coupé-like slant. Very smart indeed.
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