Volvo has today unveiled the XC90 Excellence Child Seat Concept, Volvo's re-imagination of the way small children should travel.
"We started by asking ourselves if we could make life easier for parents and safer for their children when it comes to the child seat experience," commented Tisha Johnson, Chief Designer Interiors at Volvo Cars Concept and Monitoring Centre. "We focused on three key benefits - making it easier to get the child into and out of the child seat from an ergonomic and comfort perspective, providing the child with a safe rearward facing seating position that enables it to keep eye-contact with either the driver or the rear passenger and of course including enough storage for those vital child accessories, such as diapers, bottles, wipes, and so on."
According to Tisha Johnson the idea originated in a conversation with Volvo Cars' owner Li Shufu when he reviewed the XC90 Excellence Lounge Console Concept earlier this year and thought about how else the space left by removing a front passenger seat could be used. The design team at Volvo Cars took on the challenge and in the process re-imagined the way in which small children can travel.
The resulting concept enables the parent to swivel the seat counter-clockwise when seating the child and then lock the seat in a rearward facing position. The concept also provides storage for small items beside the seat and a storage space underneath for diapers, blankets, or other larger items and enough space for a tote bag at the front of the seat under the dashboard.
The Excellence Child Seat Concept, which also provides a function to help small children safely lean back and sleep, is based on Volvo's clear safety position; that small children should travel rearward facing as long as possible (at least up to the age of 3 or 4). This is primarily due to the lack of muscular strength in the necks of small children and the disproportionate head size and weight* in relation to the body.