Hot from Geneva, Switzerland International Motor Show – S60 Debut
This just in from James:
March 2: It was standing room only in the Volvo stand at the Geneva Motor Show this morning. It was so packed, you almost couldn’t move. Like almost all the other brands, Volvo’s press conference, while filled with flashy images and big music, was subdued and to the point. Stephen Odell, Volvo Car Corporation President and CEO, made the opening remarks. He talked about the global volume expectations of about 90,000 units and made mention that the U.S. is the single largest market that will sell the car and is expected to account for almost one third of those sales. He then turned the mic over to Peter Horbury, our new (again) Design Director who went into a few of the product details. It seemed strange to see Peter on a Volvo stand again after his stint with Ford, but it also seemed right, if you know what I mean.
The media are very keen to know what’s up with the potential sale of Volvo and there simply is no update from the information sent from Ford in December. So…no scoop there.
Overall reaction to the S60 seems extremely positive. The stand has been jam-packed all day and it’s hard to get close to the cars. The shots I took are from during the conference and just afterward. The strange shot of the person in the plastic tube was going on at the Mercedes-Benz stand as they unveiled…I’m not sure what they unveiled as I kept looking at the person in the plastic tube! I’m going to walk around the show and take a few more shots of the more interesting cars on display here and will send you an update tomorrow.
Best regards,
James Hope
Product Communications
Volvo Cars of North America, LLC
BTW: All our press releases are up on www.volvocars-pr.com and we’re getting more photos and video up later today.
dan
5 Comments
Okay, that Benz display “art” is quite bizarre, but the Geneva S60 launch looked great from the video, and it sounds like the reception has been overwhelmingly positive. Will Peter Horbury be on hand to help launch the S60 in New York later this month?
Benz is bizarre. No Peter will not be here. I think our plan is not to do a full blown press conference. Aside from $$$, the car will have been fully shown in Geneva. We’re still debating our plans for NY.
According to me motor shows are bit of a waste of time.As you can see the latest car in your local showroom, or even better on the road. in fact many motor manufacturers now don’t bother with the expense of these shows.
Classic cars shows are good though.See some real cars.
These auto shows are perfect interconnecting media in between the idea makes and the public who are considered to be a buyer.auto show ro Motor show,is an exhibition of current automobile models,debuts,concept cars.It is commonly attended by automobile manufacturers.most auto shows occur once or twice a year.
Auto shows are excellent locations for showing your whole fleet and without having to spend time in a dealership, it’s one stop to see basically every kind of car/truck offered in a market. Agree they are expensive and we’ve seen manufactures cut back on stand design. Ok, so I’m thinking I need to visit an Volvo dealership, then tool over to BMW dealership, then MB, then Audi, and heck I need to see that Volvo again…that’s five dealership visits. Much easier to taste them all in one building, at one time.
Also, for us who are there on Press Days, it’s great sport to watch other manufacture’s engineers take photos of hinges, mufflers, suspension, engine compartments, etc.
dan