Richmond Hill, ON. March 30th, 2015. Volvo Cars has been awarded one of the world’s premier product design awards for its ground-breaking XC90 luxury SUV.
The Best of the Best award, based on the results of a 39-strong international jury of experts, was presented to Volvo for the XC90’s pioneering design and high level of quality. The car was chosen from almost 5,000 participating product designs across 31 product categories in the much coveted Red Dot awards.
"The new XC90 is the vanguard of Volvo’s new design direction. In our work on this car we have been very much aware of Volvo’s heritage, the value of authenticity and Scandinavian design, but we have also taken some bold and progressive steps forward, aiming for a design style and execution level that pushes our boundaries. I am very proud that our new flagship has won the prestigious Red Dot: Best of the Best award," said Thomas Ingenlath, Senior Vice President Design at Volvo Cars.
The XC90 represents a new beginning for Volvo in terms of design philosophy and has been credited with taking the luxury SUV to a new level. Characterized by precision design and attention to detail, the XC90 paves the way for future Volvo car designs with signature design elements. These include the new face of Volvo with a new Volvo logo and a floating grille, and the celebrated T-shaped ‘Thor’s Hammer’ daytime running lights.
The XC90 design was made possible thanks to the new Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) which will underpin many of Volvo’s forthcoming models which supports the dynamic and balanced proportions of the new XC90.
Red Dot: Best of the Best is awarded for pioneering design and is the highest individual Red Dot award: Product Design. Only the outstanding products in a category receive this award - in 2015, only 81 products from 31 categories received the coveted seal of approval.
"For 60 years, the most respected design experts come to Essen in order to reward the best designs. This year we had just under 5,000 products a record number of entries - an extreme workload for our judges who evaluate each product, and due to the high numbers, this illustrates the special value of the awards. The winners of the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2015 have delivered an extremely high level of performance and have therefore been recognized by the largest design competition in the world," said Professor Dr. Peter Zec, initiator and CEO of Red Dot Awards.
About Volvo Cars of Canada
Volvo Cars of Canada Corporation is part of the Volvo Car Group of Gothenburg, Sweden. The company provides marketing, sales, parts, service, technology and training support to the 38 Volvo automobile retailers across the country. The S60, S80 and XC60 are among only 22 vehicles that have been awarded the prestigious new Top Safety Pick+ by IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety). Volvo Cars is committed to Vision 2020, our goal that no one shall be killed or seriously injured in a Volvo by the year 2020.
About Volvo Car Group
Volvo has been in operation since 1927. Today, Volvo Cars is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 465,866 in 2014 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China since 2010. It formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when the company was bought by Ford Motor Company of the US. In 2010, Volvo Cars was acquired by Geely Holding.
As of December 2014, Volvo Cars had over 25,000 employees worldwide. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for China is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium) and Chengdu (China), while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofström (Sweden).
